The Pond Girls
by WritersBlockNotWelcome
Summary: Eventual 11/OC. What if Amelia wasn't the only Pond to meet the Doctor? What if her English cousin, Lillian Pond, had been there, too? How will the girls react when their imaginary friend returns, twelve years after he said he would? Will they continue to lead ordinary lives or agree to travel with their Raggedy Doctor? Starts with the Eleventh Hour. First in The Other Pond Series.
1. Chapter 1

**The Other Pond, Chapter One:**

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Disclaimer: I do not own _Doctor Who_ or any of the characters, places, or things mentioned in the television show. I only own my OC and any of other adjustments or additions made to the original story line.

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Chapter One: The Eleventh Hour, pt. 1

Lillian Pond couldn't remember the day she'd lost her dad. She couldn't remember what he'd been like, picture what he looked like in her mind, or even recall the sound of his voice. All she knew was that he was a great man. And that the day she had lost her father, was also the day that she had lost her mother.

Ever since Frederick Pond had passed, Sharon Pond hadn't been the same. It was almost like she had lost interest in everything; in life, in love, even in her own daughter. After his death, she didn't have enough energy to care about anyone anymore. Which left poor little Lily without a mother, and her older cousin Amelia, who had recently lost her own parents, without anyone.

Amelia Pond had moved from Inverness, Scotland to Leadworth, England to live with her aunt, uncle, and younger cousin soon after her parents had died. She had been with them for just a few short weeks before her uncle Frederick had passed away. After that everything changed. The girls saw firsthand the pain that a lost love could cause someone. In spite of Sharon's distant and detached front, the girls saw the deep-rooted sadness in her eyes whenever she looked at Lily. It was like she was remembering him, what he had looked like; the wild curly blonde hair, those kind grey eyes, and that bright infectious smile, exactly like Lily. Even if it was just there for a moment, they still noticed the pain that flashed across her face every time she laid eyes on her daughter, who was the image of her father. Sometimes, normally at night when they'd all gone to bed (or so Sharon thought), she even cried. But, most of the time, Sharon did her best to distance herself from the girls - especially Lily, who was a constant reminder of what she had lost.

So Amelia and Lillian were often left to do as they pleased. Amelia, being the eldest by eighteen months, often acted like a surrogate mother to Lily; making sure that the younger girl was always fed, and that she went to bed on time. But Amelia was only a child herself and also in need of a mother. Still, both of the girls felt the absence of their parents - especially at night. Because at night, when they'd all gone to bed, that was when they heard the voices. The voices that came from the crack in their bedroom wall . . .

The night that they met the Doctor was no different than any other. They had been left alone again while Sharon was out late doing God only knows what. But, on this particular night, the girls had never been more afraid of the crack in the wall. For months they had begged and pleaded with Sharon to do something about it, to get it fixed. They insisted that it was not just a normal crack; at night they heard voices coming from it, always saying 'Prisoner Zero has escaped. Prisoner Zero has escaped,' over and over. But Sharon dismissed them, convinced that they were just making up stories, as children tended to do. Besides, they couldn't afford to have it repaired whether she believed them or not. It wasn't easy supporting yourself and two little girls when up until recently you'd been a stay at home mom and your husband had been the breadwinner. So every night the girls dreamt of the crack and wondered how much longer they had before the crack opened up and swallowed them whole.

On the night that the Doctor arrived, the girls were kneeling beside Amelia's bed, their eyes closed and their hands folded in prayer.

"Dear Santa, thank you for the dolls and the pencils and the fish," Amelia began, leading the prayer, as she always did. "It's Easter now, so I hope we didn't wake you, but honest, it's an emergency."

"There's a crack in our wall," Lily tacked on, cracking one of her eyes open to cast a nervous glance at the aforementioned cracked wall.

"Aunt Sharon says that it's just an ordinary crack, but Lily and I know it's not, because at night there's voices, so please, please, could you send someone to fix it?"

"Or a policeman," Lily added.

"Or a -" Amelia said, about to add construction worker to the list, when she was interrupted by an odd whooshing noise and then the sound of something crashing down in their backyard.

The girls exchanged a look, both of them turning around to face in the direction that they'd heard the racket come from.

"Back in a moment," Amelia announced, presumably still speaking to 'Santa,' before grabbing a torch off her bedside table and flying to the window, which looked out onto their backyard, Lily following right behind like a little lost puppy.

The girls peered out the window to find that a large blue wooden box had crash-landed in their back garden, completely destroying their shed. Heavy smoke billowed out of the box, a faint yellow light still flickering inside it.

Amelia turned to her younger cousin. "Stay here," she ordered the little blonde girl, who pouted, wanting to see the mysterious box too. As Amelia rushed off to see about the blue box, Lily stood there waiting like the obedient little girl she was - that is, until her curiosity got the better of her - which, in truth, only took about twenty seconds for her self-control to disintegrate, and for her to go running after Amelia.

~DW~

In the back garden, Amelia stood about ten feet away, gazing at the box in awe. Maybe Santa had heard her prayer, maybe he'd sent the box to help them. "Thank you, Santa" she whispered, looking up at the sky where the box had fallen from.

"'Melia!" Amelia whipped around at the sound of her name, to see Lily running across the yard in a pair of yellow galoshes which must've belonged to aunt Sharon as they were _far_ too big for her. Amelia would've laughed at the comical sight if she hadn't, at the moment, been cross with her cousin for disobeying her.

"I thought I told you to stay inside!" Amelia scolded, as soon as Lily reached her.

Lily recoiled at her older cousins anger. "I wanted to see the magic box 'Melia," she said shakily, on the verge of tears.

Amelia's anger faded at seeing how hurt Lily was. She hated upsetting her, it always made her feel terrible. Lily was just so sweet and innocent, she was never mean or ill-tempered towards anyone. Even when she was really having a bad day, she still managed to be somewhat pleasant. And then there was Amelia, who had a temper as fiery as her hair. She tried not to snap at Lily, she really did. But sometimes she just couldn't help it, and she'd say or do something she'd regret. Like right now. "I'm sorry," Amelia apologized. "But stay back, alright? It could be dangerous," she said in a much gentler tone, casting a wary glance at the box. Of course the box could've been sent to help them, but there was also the possibility of it being unsafe. And if that was the case, she didn't want Lily getting too close. Lily was all Amelia had left and she couldn't afford to lose her too.

Lily nodded her head rapidly, her blonde curls bouncing up and down. "I will, 'Melia, I will!" she vowed, more than pleased that Amelia was allowing her to stay and see what was inside the box.

Amelia nodded, satisfied with Lily's promise to keep back. She approached the box, holding the torch in front of her for light. As she got closer she could see that there was a sign on the box that said, 'POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX,' in glowing yellow letters.

Behind her, Lily's feet remained rooted to the spot, craning her neck to see what was going on and itching to go after her.

All of a sudden, the doors to the police box flew open, and a grappling hook attached to a rope was thrown out, narrowly missing Amelia's head. Lily, unable to restrain herself any longer, rushed over to Amelia's side. Together, they both gazed up at the box in amazement. A hand shot out of the smoke, fingers curling around edge of the box. Another hand shot out, also gripping onto the edge. And then a head appeared, belonging to a man with wet, floppy brown hair. He grinned at the dumbstruck little girls. "Can I have an apple?" he asked after a moment of the three of them just staring at each other in silence. "All I can think about; apples. I love apples! Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before," he rambled, making the little blonde girl to smile, while the redhead merely gaped at him. He hoisted himself up so that he could sit on the edge of the police box, so that the girls could take in the rest of his appearance. His apparel wasn't any more normal than he seemed to be; he wore a tie, a tattered blue dress shirt, a pair of brown pinstriped pants, and white converse to finish the look off. Every last inch of him was dripping wet.

"Whoa!" he said, leaning over the ledge and looking down into the box, "Look at that!"

"Are you okay?" Amelia asked, looking at him oddly.

"Just had a fall. All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up," he told the little girls.

"You're soaking wet," Amelia deadpanned.

"I was in the swimming pool," he explained.

Amelia's eyebrows furrowed, "You said you were in the library."

"So was the swimming pool," he told them matter-of-factly, making Lily giggle at his silliness. She rather liked the odd man from the magic box. He was silly. He looked at the blonde girl, giving her a smile, glad that she seemed to find this new him funny. Funny was good.

"Are you a policeman?" the ginger questioned.

"Why?" he asked, his expression turning serious, "Did you call a policeman?"

"Did you come about the crack in our wall?" the little blonde girl asked hopefully.

"What crack - ack, ack, ack!" he began to say, before he fell off the ledge, as his body started to go into spasms.

"Are you alright, mister?" the blonde asked once he'd stopped, looking concerned.

"No, I'm fine, it's okay," he said, sitting up, one hand still clutched to his chest. "This is all perfectly normal -" he suddenly went rigid, coughing and retching for a moment, before he threw his head back and breathed some sort of golden energy into the air.

His regenerations seemed to get worse and worse the more of them he went through. 'Must be getting old,' he thought to himself.

Amelia looked at him strangely again, taking a protective step in front of her younger cousin, "Who are you?"

"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking," he informed her, as his hands glowed with the same kind of golden energy. "Does it scare you?" he asked, glancing between the two girls.

"No, it just looks a bit weird," Amelia said hesitantly, at the same that Lily squeaked, "No, the gold light is pretty!" Amelia elbowed her, giving her a look that clearly said that she'd better hold her tongue if she knew what was good for her.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at the blonde's words, a little surprised by how well she seemed to be coping with everything. The redhead as well, the pair of them were dealing with this remarkably well for two little girls who couldn't have been more than eight years old. Any other little girls would have been frightened half to death by all that had happened. Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of box, and instead of running back inside and hiding under the bed like any other normal little girls would, what do they do? They stayed right where they were, that's what, and practically _interrogate_ him, the mad man from the box. Well, there was his answer then, wasn't it? They weren't just a couple of ordinary little girls. Perhaps they'd even make good travelling companions . . .

"No, no, no. The crack in your wall," he corrected, getting back to the point, "Does it scare you?"

"Yes," the girls answered together without hesitation.

The man grinned, jumping to his feet. "Well, then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off," he spun on his heel and headed towards the house, only to walk straight into a tree and fall flat on his arse.

"You alright?" Amelia asked, leaning over him. Lily leaned over him too, looking down at him with a mix of concern and amusement etched on her face.

"Early days. Steering a bit off," he mused aloud, mostly speaking to himself. He sat up fast, getting to his feet and brushing the dirt off his raggedy clothing. Then, once he was steady on his feet again, he strode off towards the back door of the house, the girls loping after him to keep up.

Who was this man 'the Doctor?' they wondered. And would he be able to fix the crack in their wall?

~DW~

The Doctor stood in the doorway of the kitchen, inside the Pond residence, looking around distractedly.

Lily had taken a seat at the table and was watching the odd man with an amused smile.

Amelia handed the Doctor apple, just as he had requested.

"If you're a doctor why does your box say 'Police?'" Amelia asked, looking at him skeptically.

The Doctor didn't answer her question, instead taking a big bite out of the apple. Without warning, he spit out the half chewed piece of apple, taking Amelia by surprise, who barely had enough time to duck. Behind the Doctor and Amelia, Lily had dissolved into a fit of laughter.

"That's disgusting. What is that?" the Doctor said, glaring at the apple in disgust.

"An apple," Amelia said, looking at him like she thought he'd just lost his mind. Which, truthfully, he had probably lost _centuries_ ago.

"Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."

"You said you loved them," Amelia shot back.

"No, no, no. I love yoghurt. Yoghurt is my favorite. Give me yoghurt," he ordered.

Lily got up from her chair and rushed over to the fridge to get the Doctor yoghurt, while Amelia continued to look at him funny.

Lily handed the Doctor a plastic yoghurt cup. He ripped off the top and squeezed the yoghurt out of the cup and right into his mouth, until the cup had moulded into the shape of his fingers. Again, he spit the yoghurt out right onto the floor as though it was the most repulsive thing he'd ever tasted.

"I hate yoghurt. It's just stuff with bits in," the Doctor told the girls, matter-of-factly.

"You said it was your favorite," Amelia growled, growing exasperated.

The Doctor wiped the yoghurt off his face with the back of his hand. "New mouth, new rules. It's like eating after you've cleaned your teeth. Everything tastes wr-wr-wrong!" he yelled, as he began to twitch and spasm again, as though he were being electrocuted. He slapped himself on the forehead, which surprisingly seemed to stop the jerking. He looked around at the surprised faces of the Pond girls, a little dazed.

"What is it? What's wrong with you?" Amelia asked, a little alarmed by all these 'attacks' he seemed to be having.

"Wrong with me?" he sounded a bit offended, "It's not my fault. Why can't you give me any decent food? You're Scottish. Fry something."

Lily went to the oven and began turning knobs and switches, only partially aware of what she was doing. Amelia nudged her out of the way, "Go sit down. You don't even know what you're doing."

Lily pouted, wanting to argue, but did as she was told anyways. She sat down at the table across from the Doctor, who smiled at her and said keenly, "Hullo again!"

"Hullo," the little English girl returned his smile. Lily regarded him, her eyes trailing down from his face until they stopped underneath his chair, where the water from his clothes had started to pool. Her mother wouldn't be very pleased . . . "You're all wet," she observed.

The Doctor looked down at his wet clothes, and as though he'd only just noticed, said, "Huh? So I am."

"I'll fetch you a towel," Lily said, eager to be of some kind of help, getting up from the table and running off to find him a towel so he could dry himself off a bit.

Lily was back in less than a minute with a big white towel.

"Ah, yes, thank you," he said, taking the towel gladly.

The Doctor stood up and went over to stand by the stove, where Amelia was frying up some bacon for him. He put the towel over his head and began to dry his hair, as he eyed the bacon hungrily.

Amelia placed a plate full of bacon in front of the Doctor and sat down across from him, beside her cousin Lily, smiling expectantly as he took a bite of the bacon.

The bacon had barely touched his lips before the Doctor spat it out onto the plate. Gagging, he wiped his tongue clean with his hand to get the taste of bacon out of his mouth.

"Bacon. That's bacon," he said lowly, "Are you trying to poison me?"

The girls deflated, sighing. Bacon, another food to cross off the list. It was back to the drawing board for them.

The three of them sat there quietly, trying to come up with _something_ that the Doctor would like. Lily suddenly perked up, an idea striking her. "What about beans? Beans are good," she tried.

"Aha! Yes, beans! That's what I need! Beans!" he said, clapping his hands together and standing up out of excitement.

So Amelia got to work boiling some beans for the Doctor. Lily stood beside her, craning her neck to see over the side of the pot, making sure that Amelia didn't over-cook them. She'd done that before and it had given Lily quite the tummy ache.

"Ah, you see? Beans!" the Doctor said, leaning against the side of the oven.

The Doctor sat down at the table again and took a big forkful of beans. Immediately, he jumped up and rushed to the sink, spitting out the beans down the drain. He turned to the girls, who were both looking at him with disgusted expressions on their faces, and said, "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans."

"What about bread and butter! I love bread and butter. It's always nice, 'specially when you don't know what else to have," Lily suggested.

The Doctor pointed at her, "Yes! Right you are, blondie! Bread and butter, exactly what I need!"

Lily found a knife in one of the drawers, and carefully went to slice off a bit of butter, when it was snatched out of her hand. "Give me that! You'll poke your eye out!" Amelia chided, "Go sit down."

Lily huffed, going to take her seat in front of the Doctor again.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked, seeing the girls disappointed face.

"She treats me like a baby," Lillian said, glaring at Amelia's back, which was supposed to look intimidating, but ended up looking more humorous than anything else on such a small, unintimidating little girl. "And she's only a year-and-a-half older than me!"

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that. She's just trying to protect you, keep you safe. She acts like that because she cares," the Doctor explained to the little girl.

"Does she really?" Lily asked quietly, dropping her glare as her expression softened.

"Yes, of course she does! She's your older sister, isn't she?"

Lily laughed and shook her head, "No, she's just my cousin. I don't have any sisters or brothers. Neither does 'Melia."

"Here ye go," Amelia said, interrupting their little conversation, setting down a plate with a buttered piece of bread in front of him.

"Bread and butter. Now you're talking," the Doctor said, picking up the slice of bread.

The Doctor had barely taken one bite before he stood up, taking the plate with him, and went to the front door. "And stay out!" he shouted, throwing the plate like a disk out the front door and into a hedge. A cat that must have been lurking in the hedge yowled, causing their neighbors dogs to start to bark.

Back in the kitchen, Amelia and Lily were looking through the refrigerator, while the Doctor paced back and forth.

"We've got some carrots?" Amelia proposed, halfheartedly.

"Carrots?" the Doctor stopped his pacing, "Are you insane? No, wait, hang on," he said, striding over to look through the fridge himself. "I know what I need . . . I need . . . I need . . . I need fish fingers and custard," he said, retrieving a box of frozen fish fingers and a carton of pour-able custard from the fridge and making off with them.

Lily and Amelia shared a carton of vanilla ice cream between them, watching, mildly disgusted, as the Doctor sat in front of them, dipping a frozen fish finger into a big bowl of custard and then eat it. He picked up the bowl and lifted it to his lips, chugging down almost the rest of the custard. Lily giggled when he set the bowl back down to reveal a mustache made of custard. Then, he wiped the custard mustache off his face with the back of his hand.

"Funny," Amelia noted.

"Am I?" he asked the other little girl, who nodded her head and giggled.

"Good. Funny's good. What're your names?"

"Amelia Pond," the ginger introduced herself. She jabbed a thumb in the blonde's direction, who had gotten a little distracted by the ice cream she was eating, too busy licking her spoon clean to answer properly, "And her name's Lillian Pond. She's my younger cousin."

"Oh, those are brilliant names," the Doctor said around a fish finger, "'Amelia and Lillian Pond,' sounds like names in a fairy-tale."

Lily beamed. She never much cared for her name. She thought it was too formal, too stuffy. Personally, she preferred to be called Lily. Everybody but her mother, including Amelia most of the time, called her Lily. But it was nice to hear someone say that Lillian was a nice name as well. It made her a little less self-conscious about her full name.

"Are we in Scotland or England, Ponds?" the Doctor asked.

"No," Amelia sighed at the mention of Scotland, "Had to move to England. It's rubbish!"

"Well, it's not so bad," Lily tried to reason with her older cousin, who had set her mind to not like England from the moment she arrived. Although, Lily couldn't blame her. If she was in Amelia's shoes she probably wouldn't be too keen on England either.

"You've lived in Leadworth your entire life, you wouldn't know the difference," Amelia said condescendingly.

"So what about your mum and dad, then? Or would it be aunt and uncle? Are they upstairs? Thought we would've woken them by now."

Amelia shook her head sadly, "I don't have a mum and dad. Or an uncle. Just an aunt."

"Just my mum," Lillian added dejectedly, "No dad. Barely a mum, really."

Seeing that an air of melancholy had surrounded them the Doctor quickly tried to lighten the mood, joking, "I don't even have an aunt."

"You're lucky," Amelia said, wistfully.

"I know," the Doctor said, only half meaning what he'd said. Mostly just saying that to make the girls feel better. Part of him was grateful that he didn't have anyone. There was no one to worry about or keep him from doing whatever he wanted, exactly when he wanted to. But, on the other hand, he was very very lonely. And he missed the family he had, had oh so long ago, before he lost them to the war. True, his companions were like family to him, but he missed the real thing. He missed the unconditional love that you could only get from real, true blue family.

"So, your mum? Where is she?" the Doctor asked, directing his question at Lily, who looked a little surprised that he had addressed her instead of her cousin. She was so used to everyone ignoring her and talking to Amelia instead. It was a natural response; after all, Amelia was older and she was the more outgoing one out of the two of them. People just seemed to look to her for answers, rather than go to Lily.

"She's out," Lily shrugged, as though her mother being out so late at night and leaving them all alone was a normal occurrence.

The Doctor stopped mid-bite of another custard covered fish finger, looking appalled, "And she left you all alone?"

"We're not scared," Amelia retorted defiantly. Lily nodded, trying to put on a brave face for the Doctor, even though on the inside she truly was scared - scared of the crack in the wall.

The Doctor smiled, "Course you're not. You two aren't scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of box, man eats fish custard," he brandished a fish finger dipped in custard, "and look at you two, the both of you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

"What?" the girls chorused, finding everything that the Doctor had to say intriguing.

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall," he said, a glint in his eye that told them that he'd done stuff like this before - many, _many_ times before. And that each and every time he got a thrill from it, as though he was used to dealing with dangerous situations by now. He'd dealt with some many problems in the past that by now the gravity of a situation didn't even phase him anymore. He had the mind of a child but the eyes of someone who had seen more in his lifetime than even the oldest and most weathered person had. The Doctor was a mystery, Lily was certain of that if nothing else. A mystery she intended to unravel.

~DW~

Upstairs, the girls showed the Doctor to their shared bedroom where the crack was. He quickly got to work examining it, while the girls stood in the doorway, not wanting to get too close to the crack.

"You've had some cowboys in here," the Doctor said offhandedly, while inspecting the wall the crack seemed to be on. "Not actual cowboys, though that can happen."

"I used to hate apples, so my mum used to put faces on them," Amelia said, looking at an apple she'd plucked off her desk that had a smiley face carved into it.

"I wish I had your mum," Lily sighed wistfully. "My mum was never like that. My dad was good though. He used to cut stars out of a piece of paper and tape it on the end of a torchlight. When he'd turn it on it'd look like the stars were on the ceiling."

"They sound good, your parents," the Doctor said, smiling sadly at the little girls. It was very sad that they were growing up without them in their lives. At least they had each other. "I'll keep this for later," he said, taking the apple from Amelia and tossing it up in the air once. The Doctor turned his attention back to the crack, eyeing it carefully, "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing, where's the draft coming from?" He took an odd looking gadget out of his pocket and pointed it at the crack, the end glowing blue and a high-pitched whirring sound emitting from it. Then he brought it close to his face, reading the results of the scan he just did on the crack. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey," he muttered to himself. "You know what the crack is?" he asked the Pond girls, who both shook their heads.

"What?" Amelia asked.

"It's a crack," the Doctor answered plainly. "But I'll tell you something funny," he said, leaning in close to the crack, "if you knocked this wall down the crack would stay put, 'cause the crack isn't in the wall."

"Where is it, then?" Lillian asked softly, glancing at the crack anxiously. She'd been afraid of it before when she hadn't known anything about it, and now he was saying that not only was it a very strange crack, but also that was a very strange crack that they couldn't get rid of?

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together, right here in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes, can you hear -" he pressed his ear against the wall.

"A voice. Yes," Amelia answered.

The Doctor went over to their bedside table and grabbed a glass of water off it. He quickly tossed it's contents out over his shoulder and put the cup to the wall, placing his ear against the bottom of the glass.

"Prisoner Zero -" the Doctor mumbled, repeating what he'd heard from the crack.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped," Amelia finished for him, "That's what we heard."

"What does it mean?" Lily asked for the both of them.

The Doctor stood up straight, "It means that, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison, and they've lost a prisoner. And do you know what that means?"

Lily swallowed hard, as she began to realize what was going on.

"What?" Amelia asked, still a little behind.

"You need a better wall," he replied quickly. The Doctor lunged forward, lifting the desk that was pushed up against the cracked wall out of the way. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert, and it'll snap itself shut," he babbled, both girls totally lost. With the percentage of that, that they'd understood, he might as well have been speaking Japanese.

"Or . . ." the Doctor trailed off.

"What?" Lily questioned nervously.

The Doctor was quiet for a moment, unsure about whether or not he should be honest about the situation or not. He certainly didn't want to frighten them but he also didn't want to keep them in the dark. "You know when grown-ups tell you that everything's going to be fine, to make you feel better?"

"Yes," the Pond girls said together, looking worried.

"Everything's going to be fine," the Doctor said, offering them a quick smile and holding out a hand to Lily, who accepted it gladly, and then took her cousin Amelia's hand in her free hand as well. The Doctor pointed the doohickey at the crack and pressed the button on the side, making it whir again. The crack began to glow white, releasing more and more light as it expanded. The crack expanded until nearly half the wall was taken up by the hole of the now wide open crack.

 _"Prisoner Zero has escaped,"_ a metallic voice rasped, _"Prisoner Zero has escaped_."

"Hullo?" the Doctor called stepping forward, shielding the girls from sight in case of hostile aliens.

There was a beat of silence before a huge, crystal blue eye appeared in the hole in the wall, spinning out of control, until it seemed to focus on the Doctor and the girls.

"What's that?" Lily whispered, both in awe and terrified at the same time.

A ball of blue light shot out of the eye and right into the Doctor's pocket. The crack started to glow again, and before they knew it, it had closed.

"There. You see, told you it would close. Good as new," the Doctor cheered.

"What was that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?" Amelia demanded.

"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message," the Doctor said, pulling a leather credit card holder out of his pocket and flipping it open. "Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message," the 'psychic paper' glowed blue, just like the ball of blue light that the eye had sent through the crack. "'Prisoner Zero has escaped,'" the Doctor read, "But why tell us?"

Lily whipped around, thinking that she had heard something behind her. She'd thought that it sounded sort of like a low growling noise, barely audible. But she must have been mistaken, there was nothing behind her - or at least nothing she could see. A shiver ran down her spine, at that thought.

"Unless . . ." the Doctor trailed off, as he got lost in his thoughts.

"Unless what?" Amelia asked, sensing that something was wrong.

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here," the Doctor answered, looking around the room, suddenly more cautious and alert, "But he couldn't have. We'd know." The Doctor rushed out of the room, into the hall, the girls following him. "It's difficult. Brand-new me, nothing works yet," he told them, "But there's something I'm missing . . ." He glanced around, trying to notice as much detail as possible, so he could figure out what it was that he seemed to be missing. He stopped, noticing something out of his peripheral vision that he hadn't before. ". . . in the corner of my eye," he muttered, turning his head to look directly down the hall at a wall - a seemingly normal wall to the untrained eye, but he knew better. After all, he was the Doctor.

The sound of the TARDIS chiming struck him from his light-bulb moment. He looked at the girls and then back out the window, then back at the girls as another chime from the TARDIS sounded. That was not a good sign. "No, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor shouted, racing down the stairs, after his beloved time-machine.

The Doctor threw the back door open and ran towards the TARDIS, the Pond girls right on his tail, "I've got to get back in there. The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!"

"But . . ." Amelia panted, coming up behind him as he fiddled with the grappling rope, "it's just a box, how can a box have engines?"

"It's not _just_ a box, it's a magic box!" Lily corrected, gazing at the police box with a look of pure amazement in her eyes.

"Lillian's right. It's not just a box. It's a time-machine," he said, spinning around to face them, sending the little blonde girl a broad grin. He had to give her some credit for that one, normally people just seemed to assume that the TARDIS was just a police box, nothing more. Of course that had something to do with the Chameleon Circuit, but nevertheless, it was astonishing how little people seemed to think of it. But she was clever, she wasn't blinded by logic. She was able to put the pieces together and realize that his police box wasn't just any old police box.

"What, a real one? You've got a real time-machine?" Amelia sounded doubtful.

"Not for much longer if I can't get it stabilized," the Doctor said, appearing out from behind the side of the box. "Five minute hop into the future should do it," he said throwing the rope over the side of the box.

"Can we come?" Amelia asked.

"Not safe in here, not yet. Five minutes. Give me five minutes. I'll be right back," he promised, jumping up onto the edge of the box and sitting there, preparing to jump.

"People always say that," Lillian murmured, her grey eyed gaze downcast, and her expression exhibiting how truly sad and alone in the world she felt. Her dad used to say that he'd always be there for her and that he'd always love her. She didn't remember much about him, but she remembered that. And he had lied because he wasn't there. He wasn't there for her like he'd said he would be. And her mom, Sharon should've been there for her - for Amelia too, when Lily's father had passed away. She should've been there for them, supported them through those tough times, but she'd let them down. Just, as it seemed, everybody else did. Amelia took Lily's hand in hers to offer her some comfort, understanding the pain she felt.

The Doctor whipped around, jumping back over the side of the box and landing back down onto the ground. Striding over to stand in front of the girls, he leaned down to look Lily in the eyes. She hesitantly allowed her grey eyes to meet his green; to see the promise in them. The promise to return to them.

"Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me. I'm the Doctor," he gave the girls a reassuring smile.

The corners of Lily's lips turned up; a smile spreading across her face - one of those rare, infectious smiles that made everybody feel ten times happier just to have caught a glimpse of it. The Doctor wasn't like everyone else, he was coming back for them. He'd be back, she just knew it, and he'd take them with him in that magic box of his. They'd never be alone again.

Lily turned to Amelia, giving her a nod of approval. They turned back to the Doctor and nodded, silently telling him that they trusted him. That was all the confirmation he needed. The Doctor climbed up on top of the edge of the box again. He glanced back at the little Pond girls, shooting them one last smile, before he took a hold of the grappling rope and leap, shouting all the way down, "Geronimo!"

The police box whooshed as it dematerialized. The girls watched until the box completely vanished, leaving behind a splintered shed. Amelia and Lily locked eyes, grinning widely. He was coming back for them, they were leaving!

"C'mon!" Amelia tugged on Lily's hand, "We need to go pack!" Together they ran back upstairs, Lily nearly tripping on the steps twice. Amelia got down on her stomach and reached under her bed, pulling out a child sized suitcase. Amelia set the suitcase on top of her bed, unbuckling the buckles and opening the lid up. Hurriedly, the girls rushed around the room grabbing anything and everything they wanted to take with them and throwing it into the suitcase. When the girls were both satisfied, they tried to close the suitcase, which was overflowing with clothes, toys, and books. Neither of them willing to part with anything, Lily got up on the bed and sat on top of the suitcase, while Amelia tried to close the buckles. When they finally got the suitcase to shut, they ran back downstairs.

Lily was about to open the back door when Amelia stopped her, "Wait, we should bring a hat and coat. We've no idea where we're going." Lily nodded, going to the front hall closet to grab a jacket and a hat. Amelia put on her purple duffel coat and a red bobble hat, while Lily threw on a yellow beret and a blue pea-coat, deciding to keep the two-big yellow galoshes.

Now that they were dressed and ready, they took their shared suitcase outside to the backyard, set it down in front of the broken shed, and sat down on top of it, waiting for the Doctor and his magic blue box to return for them.

Minutes past, hours even, and the Doctor still hadn't returned. But the girls never lost hope. He'd promised them, and his word was good enough for them. Even as the sun began to rise and the girls eyes began to grow heavier, they still waited. "He's - arghhh," Lily cut herself off with a yawn, "He's coming back for us, I know it. He's just a little . . . late," she mumbled sleepily, as her eyes fluttered shut and her head drooped onto Amelia's shoulder. "Yeah," Amelia agreed, resting her chin on top of Lily's hair. "I hope so," she whispered, before she drifted off to sleep as well.

Both of the Pond girls dreamed of the Doctor that night - and almost every night after that.

~DW~

Lily Pond was on her way home from _the Leadworth Chronicle_ printing press, having just delivered another article she wrote about Leadworth Primary School's upcoming fundraiser to her boss, when her phone started ringing. Looking at the caller ID she saw a picture of herself and Amy at a Halloween party two years before. Lily was dressed up as a nurse, she'd borrowed the scrubs from their friend Rory who worked at the local hospital as a last minute costume. While Amy had opted for a more provocative ensemble, donning a tight black skirt, a bulletproof vest, and a police cap, dressed as a 'sexy police officer.' Lily giggled to herself, remembering how Rory's tongue had practically fallen out of his mouth at the sight of Amy in that outfit.

Lily flipped open her cell-phone and pressed it to her ear. "Hello Amy, what's up?" she greeted, mentally preparing herself for Amy's typical antics. One thing was for certain, there was never a dull moment when you were related to Amelia Pond.

 _"White male, mid-twenties, breaking and entering. Send me some backup, I've got him restrained,"_ Amy's voice said on the other line.

Lily stopped in her tracks, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion, "Amy, are you alright? Why are you talking like that? Is this some kind of joke?"

 _"Watson,"_ Amy growled over the phone, _"Get over her now! And bring back up!"_

"Alright, alright. I'm on my way home now, anyways. I'll see you in a few minutes. And when I get there you better explain to me what all this 'send backup and breaking and entering' stuff is about, 'cause if this is some kind of gig you're doing I'm not helping you out. I've told you before I draw the line at dressing up in costumes and kissing men for money, no matter how much I could use the extra bit of cash," Lily stated, convinced that Amy's odd behavior had something to do with her job as a kissogram.

Needless to say, Lily didn't exactly approve of Amy's job. Amy argued that it was easy money and a well-paying job, but neither Lily nor Amy's aunt Sharon thought that a kissogram was an appropriate job for a twenty-year-old woman. Also, quite recently, Amy and their close friend Rory had started going out, and Lily didn't think it was very fair of Amy to continue to be paid to go to parties and kiss other guys while Rory could do nothing about it. He'd been hung up on Amy forever, and he wouldn't risk losing the one chance he got with her by telling her to quit her job. Plus, Rory just wasn't that sort of guy. Lily knew that Amy really _did_ care about Rory, and that it was just her flirty nature and fear of commitment that made her keep him at an arm's length, but she hoped that Amy would realize sooner rather than later how much Rory meant to her, before it was too late and she lost him to some other girl.

 _"Oi, you! Sit still,"_ Lily heard Amy's muffled voice say, as though she had covered the receiver with her hand to speak to someone else.

"Is someone else there with you?" Lily asked, growing even more confused the longer this phone call went on. She caught the voice of a man saying something about a 'cricket bat.' And then Amy told him to be quiet because she was on the phone.

"Amy, seriously, is everything alright?" Lily asked, starting to get worried. What if this was serious? What if someone had actually broken into the house?

 _"Just get over here, Watson,"_ Amy commanded, sounding exasperated with all the questions she was throwing at her.

"Okay, I'll be there soon," Lily promised, hanging up the phone.

Lily, being only a few blocks from the house, jogged the rest of the way there. When she finally made it to the front door, she paused for a moment to catch her breath. She reached into her jacket pocket, producing a silver house key. She stuck the key in the lock, and as quietly as she could, so as not to alert the intruder of her presence, she unlocked the door. Lily could hear Amy's voice and a voice that she didn't recognize talking upstairs. She carefully crept upstairs, following the sound of their voices. She stopped a few steps before the landing, peaking out from behind the stair balusters, seeing Amy dressed up in the police officer costume from two Halloweens ago with a man, the intruder, Lily guessed, handcuffed to the radiator.

"Where's Lillian and Amelia?" Lily heard the man ask. Lily froze. How did he know her name? How did he know Amy's name? Nobody called them that anymore, not since they were children. Who was this man?

"The Ponds?" Amelia asked, sounding a little startled herself.

"Yeah. Lillian. Little English girl. Blonde hair. And her cousin, Amelia. Little Scottish girl. Red hair. Where are they?" he asked, glancing around Amy as though to see if they were standing behind her. "I promised them five minutes, but the engines were phasing. I suppose I must've gone a bit far." Seeing the alarmed expression on Amy's face he asked, "Has something happened to them?"

Lily's eyes had widened to the size of dinner plates. This man, this intruder, who Amy had handcuffed to the radiator, the way he spoke he sounded just like the . . . No, no, it couldn't be! He _couldn't_ be . . .

"The Ponds haven't lived here in a long time," Amy fibbed.

"How long?" he demanded.

Amy paused, unsure about whether she should lie again or not. "Six months," she misinformed.

"No! No, no, no! I can't be six months late! I said five minutes I promised!"

"This can't be happening," Lily breathed, leaning closer to try to get a better look at him, making the step she was standing on creak, alerting them of her arrival. Lily internally groaned.

"Watson, finally!" Amy groused, trying to keep up her police officer act, "Get over here and help me."

Lily blinked, not quite sure how to sound like a police officer, "Uh, yes ma'am." She joined Amy in front of the man. She glanced at him nervously. "Er, Officer . . ." she trailed off, not sure what she should call her at the moment. ". . . Williams," she decided to use Rory's surname as it was the first name to pop into her head, "Can I speak with you for a moment? Over there?" She gestured to the other end of the hall, where the man wouldn't be able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Amy followed her over to stand by the staircase. The Doctor craned his neck, trying to catch what they were saying. There was something they weren't telling him, he was sure of it . . .

When Lily was satisfied that the man couldn't hear them, she hissed, "What is going on?!"

"I don't know, I heard someone breaking in and I just threw on the first thing I could find," Amy said, adjusting her police officer cap.

"What about him? How did you get him handcuffed to the radiator?" Lily asked, glancing between Amy and the man. He wasn't huge, but he was bigger than Amy. He could've easily overpowered her.

"I whacked him with a cricket bat," Amy supplied, looking a little sheepish.

"A cricket bat? Since when do we own a cricket bat?" Lily asked, confused. Neither of them were very sporty. She didn't know why they'd just happen to have a cricket bat of all things lying around.

"I don't know! We just do!"

"Okay," Lily decided to change the subject, realizing that they had more pressing matters to attend to. "So what are we going to do about him then? How does he even know about us? That stuff he said, he sounded exactly like the -"

"I know, I know! But he can't be! It must be someone playing some kind of sick joke on us. After all, the whole town practically knows about - well, you know. Oh, I know who's behind this!" Amy exclaimed, snapping her fingers, having a sort of 'aha moment.'

"Who?" Lily asked, confused, not thinking that anyone would have even thought to have pulled a prank like this on them, considering how much time had past since they'd even spoken about their childhood imaginary friend.

"Veronica Stackmore! She was always jealous of us! Oh, this has got Veronica Stackmore written all over it!" Amy declared angrily, slamming her fist down on her palm.

"Shhh!" Lily shushed her, putting her finger to her lips, and looking pointedly over at the man, who was straining to listen in on their conversation. "This has got nothing to do with Veronica Stackmore and you know it," Lily said firmly.

Amy looked as though she wanted to argue with her, but she ultimately decided not to, knowing that it was pointless. Amy sighed, she knew deep down that Lily was right. "I mean, he _can't_ be _real_ ," Amy said, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than she was Lily, "Can he?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure anymore," Lily said, gazing at the man over Amy's shoulder, who looked up, having felt her eyes on him, to meet her gaze. He held her gaze for a good long time before his gaze drifted from Lily's eyes to something behind her. Lily turned, only to see a wall. "What's he looking at?" she muttered to herself.

"What?" Amy asked, not quite catching that.

"Nothing," Lily dismissed with a wave of her hand, looking back at the man again. Although, a part of her thought that she'd briefly seen something. Something behind her. Something that shouldn't be there . . .

~DW~

After bickering over what to do for a good ten minutes, the girls finally decided that they'd interrogate the man, find out exactly what he knew about them and how he knew it, and then go from there. Phoning the _real_ police wouldn't work, they'd take too long. Leadworth was notorious for how slow everything was, especially the police force. And they couldn't very well throw him out, he'd likely just come back. No, they'd find out what he knew and then they'd decide what their next move was.

The girls stood in front of the man, trying to look like intimidating police women, Amelia pulling the act off easily, while Lily was a bit less convincing. She wasn't very good at looking intimidating, considering her slightly below average stature and small figure. Plus, unlike Amy, she didn't have a fake badge and costume to help her look the part. She was dressed in a plain white T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and an old pair of sneakers, which didn't exactly say, 'tough policewoman.'

The man looked Lily up and down, in a more appraising kind of way than anything. "Where's your uniform if you're a police officer?" he asked, looking confused.

"I was off duty when my partner, Officer Williams, called me," Lily lied, careful to call Amy by her alias rather than her real name.

"I need to speak to whoever lives in this house right now," the man said, very seriously.

"I live here," Amy informed him.

"But you're the police," he retorted.

"Yes, and this is where I live. You got a problem with that?" Amy shot back tersely.

"How many rooms?" the man asked, glancing behind the girls again.

"I'm sorry?" Lily asked, thinking she'd heard him wrong. Why would it matter to him how many rooms there were?

"On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Count them for me now," he ordered.

"Why?" Amy demanded, not enjoying being ordered about. Usually she was the one who did the ordering, _not_ the one taking the orders.

"Because it will change your life," he said, deadly serious.

Amy paused a moment, contemplating whether she should humor him not. "Five," she said, pointing at each door as she counted them out, "One, two, three, four, five -"

"Six," the man tacked on.

"Six?" Amy asked, confused and a little frightened.

"Look," he instructed.

"Look where?" Lily asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Exactly where you don't want to look. Where you never want to look. The corner of your eye."

Both girls turned their heads, looking behind them out of their peripheral vision, to see another door that hadn't been there before.

"That's . . . That is not possible," Amy shook her head in disbelief.

Lily turned to look at the man again. "How is that possible?" she asked him incredulously, pointing at the door.

"There's a perception filter all around that door. Sensed it last time I was here. Should've seen it," he explained.

"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room we've never even noticed," Lily marveled, staring at the door in awe.

"The filter stopped you noticing. Something came here a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to uncuff me now!" he said, struggling against the cuffs.

Lily kneeled beside him, examining the cuffs. They seemed to be the real thing, they weren't plastic that was for sure. He wouldn't be able to break them.

"Amy where's the key?" Lily asked, looking around to see if maybe Amy had dropped it somewhere. It wouldn't be the first time . . .

Amy was slowly inching closer and closer to the door, not paying attention to them. "I don't have the key I've lost it," she replied absentmindedly, her eyes never leaving the door.

"How can you have lost it?!" the man demanded, struggling harder against his restraint, while Lily continued to feel around for the key. "Stay away from that door! Do not touch that door!" he shouted, Amy completely ignoring him. "Listen to me! Do not open that . . ." he trailed off, as Amy reached for the doorknob. "Why does nobody ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to . . . again?" he ranted, turning to Lily for some kind of response.

Lily scoffed. "No, you just have a face that _Amy_ doesn't listen to. Trust me, everybody does. I should know, I have one of those faces, too," she quipped, as she took a bobbi-pin out of her hair, her blonde bangs falling in front of her eyes. She quickly pushed her fringe behind her ear, and began to pick the lock on the handcuffs. 'If this works,' Lily thought to herself, 'I'm definitely thanking Mels for showing me how to pick a lock. And I thought I'd never _actually_ need touse it. Boy, was I wrong.'

The man pulled against the handcuffs again, making them rattle.

"Stop, you'll only hurt yourself if you keep pulling on the cuffs like that. I've almost got them, if you'd only sit still . . ." she trailed off, focusing on trying to pick the lock.

"What's your name, then? I know it's Officer Watson, but what's your first name. You just seem . . . familiar," he said, staring into her eyes as though he was trying to decide where he knew her from. He'd met a lot of people throughout his travels, it was sort of hard to keep them all straight.

Lily didn't answer his question, instead groaning in frustration, "It's not working, I can't unlock it!"

The man frantically checked his pockets, "My screwdriver. Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?" Hmm, that sounded familiar . . .

"There's nothing here," Amy called from inside the mystery room.

"Whatever's in there stopped you seeing the whole room. What makes you think you could see it? Now, please, just get out!"

"Silver, blue at the end?" Amy called out again.

"My screwdriver, yeah."

"It's here," she told them.

Lily stopped working, listening to their conversation. How would his screwdriver have ended up in there? It's not like it just grew legs and walked off. She went back to fiddling with the bobbi-pin, desperate to release the man as he seemed to be the only one who knew what the hell was going on.

"Must have rolled under the door," he said, relieved that he hadn't lost it or something. He didn't know what he'd do without it sometimes.

"Yeah, must have," Amy agreed, "And then it must've jumped up onto the table."

The man and Lily froze, locking eyes with each other as what Amy had said sunk in. This was _not_ good.

"Get out of there," he breathed, "Get out of there!" He struggled harder than ever against the cuffs, realizing how much danger the police woman was in.

"Amy, please, get out!" Lily begged. She knew Amy, she knew how stubborn she could be. If they were to get out of there safely she'd need to get the man unlocked first. She turned back to the man, putting her hand on his wrist to still him. "I can't unlock it if you keep moving," she told him gently, reluctantly the man obliged. Lily went back to fiddling with the lock, trying to come up with another way to free him at the same time.

"Get out! Get out of there!" he yelled, his other hand twitching, while he tried to keep still so the officer could pick the lock but finding it extremely hard when there was so much going on.

"Maybe we have a saw or - or, maybe we could cut it off with wire cutters," Lily suggested, still working hurriedly on the lock.

"What is it? What are you doing?" the man called to Amy, finding her silence unsettling.

"There's nothing here, but . . ." Amy trailed off.

"Corner of your eye," the man reminded.

"What is it?" Amy asked shakily.

"Don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you!" he warned.

Lily went rigid, at the words 'it will kill you.' She whipped around, screaming, "Amy get out of there _now_!"

"Don't look at it. Do not look," the man said sternly.

A moment later, Amy screamed shrilly.

"Amy!"

"Get out!"

Amy ran out of the room, the door closing behind her. She handed the man the 'screwdriver' he'd been talking about. He pointed it at the door, the lock clicking shut. Then he pointed it at the handcuffs. "Come on," he said, talking to the screwdriver, "What's the bad alien done to you?"

"Will that door hold it?" Amy demanded, staring at the door in horror.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, 'course," he replied, sarcastically, "It's an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer-space. They're all terrified of wood!"

Amy shot him a withering glare.

"Hey!" Lily protested, locking eyes with him. "No need to get short with her, it's a decent question," she chastised lightly.

The man nodded, reluctantly saying a quick 'sorry' to Amy, before continuing to work on the cuffs.

Suddenly, the door started to glow orange.

"What's that? What's it doing?" Amy demanded.

"I don't know. Getting dressed? Run. Just go. The both of you. Your backups coming, I'll be fine."

"There is . . . no backup," Lily confessed, sheepishly.

"I heard her on the phone to you, Watson, she told you to call for backup. Why didn't you bring backup?" he interrogated Lily, who shared a nervous glance with Amy.

"She didn't bring backup because she's not a police woman," Amy told him, growing frustrated with all the silly questions. They were in danger for goodness sakes, the questions could wait till later!

"But you're police women," he protested, glancing between the girls in confusion.

"I'm a kissogram!" Amy exclaimed, tossing the police cap, revealing her fiery red hair.

Just then, the door flew off its hinges, a bald man and a Rottweiler standing in the door frame, the dog snarling at them.

"But it's just . . ." Amy started, in disbelief.

"No, it isn't," the man corrected, "Look at the faces."

Lily's eyes drifted from the dogs face, which was surprisingly calm, to the bald mans, who seemed to be growling at them. Then, he started barking, confirming Lily's thoughts.

"Why's the man barking instead of the dog?" Lily asked, turning back to the man, to see him watching the man and the dog, fascinated by them.

"What? I'm sorry, but what?" Amy said, at this point, wondering whether or not she'd lost her mind.

"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two. Clever old multi-form."

They watched as the man and dog looked from side-to-side in complete synchronization.

"A bit of a rushed job, though," he informed them. "Got the voice a bit muddled, did you?" he asked, his question directed at the so-called multi-form.

The multi-forms heads snapped in their direction.

"Mind you, where'd you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?" the man continued to speak to the multi-form.

The man growled again, sounding much more vicious and animalistic than a dog, and opened his mouth revealing a set of long, sharp teeth that were very much not human.

"Stay, boy!" the Doctor commanded, hoping that maybe the multi-form would respond to someone authoritative; like a dog to his master. Perhaps if the live feed was to the dog then the dogs subconscious would leak through and it would obey him. But, unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case . . . So he tried a different tactic.

"We're safe. Want to know why? She sent for backup," he lied, gesturing to Lily, who shifted nervously due to the unwanted attention from a vicious alien.

"She didn't send for backup!" Amy interrupted, not catching on to what he was trying to do.

"I know. That was a clever lie to save our lives," he hissed. He quickly changed course. "Okay, yeah, no backup," he admitted to the multi-form, "And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had backup, then you'd have to kill us."

Then, to their great dismay and confusion, backup arrived.

 _"Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention, Prisoner Zero,"_ a familiar metallic voice boomed.

"What's that?" Amy hissed.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I _think_ . . . that, that would be backup," Lily said slowly, her voice shaking slightly.

"Okay, one more time. We do have backup and that's definitely why we're safe," the man stated firmly.

 _"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated,"_ the Guard announced, making their stomachs drop.

"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration," he added as an afterthought.

 _"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated . . ."_

The multi-form disappeared into one of the rooms.

The man frantically tried to get his screwdriver to work, banging it on the floor, "Work, come on!"

 _"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated . . ."_

Finally, the blue light on the end of the screwdriver lit up and he pointed it at the handcuffs, the cuffs popping open as though they were merely a set of plastic child's cuffs.

"Run!" he ordered, grabbing Lily's hand and practically dragging her out of the house, Amy right behind them.

Once they'd gotten outside, the man pointed the screwdriver at the back door, locking it so the multi-form wouldn't be able to follow them. "Kissogram?" he questioned Amy.

"Yes, a kissogram. What's going on?" Amy demanded.

"Why did you pretend to be policewomen?" he asked them. Lily suddenly realized that she was still holding his hand and quickly dropped it, a light blush coloring her cheeks. The man looked at her in confusion, wondering why she'd let go, but his attention was soon captured by Amy again as she answered his question.

"You broke into my house! It was this or a French maid! What's going on? Tell me!" she yelled after him as he ran off. The girls followed him, only to see him standing there in front of a blue police box . . .

Lily gasped. "The magic box . . ." she whispered, so quietly that Amy, who was standing right beside her, had barely heard her. It was him. It was the Doctor. He'd finally come back for them . . .

The Doctor turned to them. "An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?" he asked rhetorically, turning back to his time-machine, fiddling with the door.

"Yes!" the girls chorused. Of course they had questions! They hadn't seen him in, what, twelve years? And now suddenly he appears again out of nowhere, and there are aliens after them. Lily was starting to wonder if she was having some sort of stress-induced hallucination.

"Me too," he said dryly, "No, no, no! Don't do that, not now! It's still rebuilding, not letting us in!"

Behind them, Prisoner Zero was standing in the window, barking. Lily glanced back at the hostile alien, knowing that they didn't have much time. "Come on!" she grabbed the Doctor's arm, pulling him away from the police box.

"No, wait, hang on, hang on, wait, wait, wait. The shed," he protested, pulling out of her grip and running over to the shed, "I destroyed that shed last time I was here, smashed it to pieces."

"So there's a new one. Let's go," Amy remarked, eager to get out of there before they were incinerated along with the house and Prisoner Zero.

"Yeah, but the new one's got old," the Doctor replied, examining the shed, "It's ten years old at least." He leaned in, smelling the wood, dragging a finger across it and then sticking it in his mouth. "Twelve years. I'm not six months late, I'm twelve years late," he realized.

"He's coming," Amy said, panic creeping into her voice, as she looked over her shoulder, waiting for Prisoner Zero to appear.

"You said six months. Why did you say six months?" he questioned her, making Amy shift nervously.

"We've got to go," Lily said, trying to remind him of the urgency of the situation.

"This matters. This is important," he argued. "Why did you say six months?" he demanded.

"Well, why did you say five minutes?!" Amy roared. Her anger faded fast as she realized what she'd said, what she'd just revealed. She shared a glance with Lily, who looked nearly as shocked as the Doctor was.

The Doctor stared at her as though she'd just swung her arm back and slapped him clean across the face. "What?" he breathed, almost not wanting to believe that he'd heard her correctly. She couldn't be . . .

Lily groaned, they didn't have time for this! She grabbed the Doctor's arm again, "Come on!"

"What? What?!" he exclaimed, as Lily dragged him around the side of the house, narrowly avoiding Prisoner Zero, who stood by the back door, barking at them as they past, and right down the street. As soon as she was satisfied with the distance they'd put between them and Prisoner Zero, she dropped his arm and stopped to allow Amy catch up.

"You're Amelia," he said, as soon as Amy had caught up with them.

"You're late," she said brusquely, striding past them.

The Doctor looked over at Lily, looking her up and down again. "And you! You're Lillian!" Lily smiled nervously, sending him an awkward wave, before hurrying after Amy. "Amelia and Lillian Pond. You're the little girls!" he said, jogging to catch up with them.

"I'm Amelia, she's Lillian, and you're late!" Amy replied sharply, continuing to stride quickly down the street.

"You hit me with a cricket bat."

"Twelve years," she said, as though that answered his unspoken question.

"A cricket bat!" the Doctor stressed. Nine-hundred-plus-years of time and space and that was the first time anyone had ever hit him over the head with a cricket bat.

Amy scoffed, "Twelve years and four psychiatrists."

" _Four_?" he asked, looking at Lily for confirmation. How did someone go through _four_ psychiatrists?!

Lily nodded gravely, mouthing, 'She kept biting them.'

"Biting them? Why?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"They said you weren't real," Amy admitted, sulkily.

Their attention was drawn elsewhere as they heard the metallic voice of the Guard crackle over the PA system of a nearby ice-cream truck.

 _"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated . . ."_

"How's it doing that?" Lily asked, looking up at the sky for any sign of the Guard, but seeing nothing. Just clear blue sky and puffy white clouds.

"No, no, no, come on. What? We're being staked out by an ice-cream van?" Amy asked, feeling like she'd gone completely mad.

 _"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated . . ."_

They ran around the corner to the ice-cream van. "What's that? Why are you playing that?" the Doctor asked the ice-cream man, who had just been messing with the PA wires.

"It's supposed to be _Clair de Lune_ ," he said, looking at them, perplexed.

Lily shot him an apologetic smile, as he watched the Doctor take his radio without asking and start fiddling around with the buttons. "Lovely song, _Clair de Lune,"_ she commented lightly, trying to distract the poor confused ice-cream man, who looked on the verge of having a mental breakdown due to all the confusion. A second later, the Doctor got the radio working.

 _"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated . . ."_ the radio played, just like the PA system was. _"Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated . . ."_

The Doctor set the radio down, spinning around, to look around and see if the same message was being projected from anywhere else, noticing a woman having trouble with her cellphone. Amy and Lily did the same, seeing a woman who was messing around with her MP3 player, appearing to have the same problem.

"Doctor, what's happening?" Lily's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

Without any notice, the Doctor ran off, hopping over Mrs. Angelo's white picket fence.

"Come on," Amy said, taking Lily's hand and heading after him.

All those years dreaming about what hanging out with the Doctor would be like, Lily had never considered how much _running_ would be involved.

~DW~

The Doctor barged through Mrs. Angelo's door, surprising the elderly woman, who did a double take when she saw him.

"Hullo! Sorry to barge in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area," he quickly covered, noticing that the woman's TV seemed to be broadcasting an image of Prisoner Zero's guard and repeating the same message over and over. Lily dashed to his side, Amy right behind her. The Doctor gave Amy's outfit the once over, adding, "Also, crimes. Let's have a look then." The Doctor hurried over to the television, taking out his sonic screwdriver from his pocket.

"I was just about to phone. It's on every channel," Mrs. Angelo explained to the Doctor, that is, until she noticed the Pond girls.

"Hullo, Lily, dear," Mrs. Angelo greeted Lily pleasantly. Lily smiled graciously, "Hullo Mrs. Angelo, how are you today?" Lily had always liked Mrs. Angelo. While some of the other adults used to whisper about them, thinking them odd, Mrs. Angelo had always been very kind to them.

"Oh and Amy, dear," Mrs. Angelo said, noticing Amy standing there as well. Then, Mrs. Angelo seemed taken aback by Amy's outfit, "Are you a policewoman now?"

"Well, sometimes," Amy said, strained. Beside her, Lily snickered at her awkwardness. It wasn't very often that Amy Pond was at a loss for words. Amy elbowed her in the ribs.

"Ow!" Lily hissed, rubbing her side.

"I thought you were a nurse," Mrs. Angelo said, the Doctor glancing over at them as he fiddled with the her portable radio.

"I can be a nurse," Amy replied tensely, wishing that the old woman would just drop it.

"Or, actually, a nun?" Mrs. Angelo asked, growing more and more confused.

"I dabble," Amy laughed nervously.

Mrs. Angelo seemed to get the message that Amy didn't want to really want to talk about her various jobs and professions, and changed the subject. "Amy, who is your friend?" Mrs. Angelo asked, thinking that the Doctor was another one of Amy's boyfriends.

"Who's Amy? You were Amelia," the Doctor said, sounding a little put out.

"Yeah, now I'm Amy," she retorted.

"Amelia Pond. That was a great name!" the Doctor argued.

"Oh, get off my case. I'm not the only one who changed my name. Why don't you lecture, Lily Pond, over there," Amy said, pointing at Lily, who's eyes widened at sudden unwanted attention from the Doctor.

"You too?" the Doctor asked her, looking exasperated.

"I know you, don't I?" Mrs. Angelo asked, distracting him, to Lily's relief, "I've seen you somewhere before."

"Not me. Brand-new face," he said, leaning down and stretching out his face as though to make his point, "First time on. And what sort of jobs a kissogram?"

"I go to parties and I kiss people," Amy explained. At the look on the Doctor's face, Amy cleared her throat nervously. "With outfits . . . It's a laugh," she defended.

"You were a little girl five minutes ago," the Doctor reprimanded.

"You're worse than Lily and my aunt Sharon," Amy snapped back.

"I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt," he countered. Then turning back to Mrs. Angelo, he said, "And that is not how I'm introducing myself." The Doctor went back to meddling with the radio. "So tell me, what is it that you do, Lily? And please don't say that you're also a kissogram," the Doctor asked, adding the last part mostly just to get on Amy's nerves.

"Watch it," Amy growled, making the Doctor smirk.

"Well, I'm a freelance journalist, I suppose. I write for the local newspaper, _the Leadworth Chronicle_ , sometimes. But what I really want to do is write novels. I'm going to the University of Gloucestershire this fall for creative writing," Lily told him, sheepishly, looking down at the ground. She didn't really like talking about her writing, she thought it was a little embarrassing. When they were kids Amy used to have her write storybooks about the Doctor and his magic box. And this one time Veronica Stackmore had seen her writing one and took it from her, reading it out loud to the entire class. After that the other kids always used to tease her about it. Ever since then she'd been sort of shy about her writing.

The Doctor stopped what he was doing, turning towards her, a huge grin appearing on his face. "That's brilliant, that's wonderful! Good for you, Lillian Pond! Good for you! When did you start that?" he asked, messing around with the radio again.

Lily let out a little laugh in relief. She'd been so afraid that he'd tell her that writing was an impractical job, just like her mother always did. Like everybody else did. But here he was acting like it was the best thing he'd heard all day.

"Er, not too long after we met you, actually," she replied, a little awkwardly. She didn't really want to tell him that the first time she really ever wrote a story, that it had been about him. He'd probably think she was barmy!

"You see!" he said to Amy. "You should be looking for a job like Lily's. Now there's a good job; writing! Not only is it practical, but it also takes quite a bit of imagination," he said, winking at Lily, who ducked her head and blushed a little.

She wanted to scoff and tell him that her mother would probably debate the 'practical' part of that with him, but decided not to, as they had more important things to see to at the moment.

He held up the radio, pointing his sonic screwdriver at it, making it play the Guards message in multiple languages.

"Okay, so it's everywhere, in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world," he said, before flying over to the window, throwing it open and sticking his head out.

"What's up there? What're you looking for?" Amy asked, all three of the women moving to stand beside him.

"Okay, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten cores, they're going to need a forty percent fission blast," he evaluated.

The sound of the front door opening made the Doctor whirl around, to see a tall young man looking to be around the same age as the Pond girls were. The Doctor walked right up to him, still talking, standing on his tippy toes to look him in the eyes. "So assuming a medium-sized starship, that's twenty minutes. What do you think? Twenty minutes?" he asked, standing back down on the flats of his feet and then back up on his tippy toes again, the young man looking at him oddly. "Yeah, twenty minutes," the Doctor made up his mind, walking over to stand in front of girls.

"Twenty minutes to what?" Lily pressed.

"Are you the Doctor?" the young man, who just so happened to be Mrs. Angelo's grandson Jeff, asked.

Before any of them could deny it, Mrs. Angelo cried excitedly, "He is, isn't he? He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those stories and cartoons you did, when you were little." Lily looked down, self-consciously, her cheeks going red again. While Amy avoided the Doctor's eyes. "The Raggedy Doctor. It's him!" Mrs. Angelo continued, ignorant to the awkwardness she'd created.

"Shut up," Amy coughed.

"Cartoons?" the Doctor asked, before going over to take a seat on the couch in front of the telly.

"Gran, it's him, isn't it?" Jeff said eagerly, watching the Doctor sit down, "It's really him!"

"Jeff, shut up!" Amy growled.

"Twenty minutes to what?" Lily repeated, pushing aside her embarrassment.

 _". . . human residence will be incinerated. Repeat . . ."_ the television repeated the message over and over.

"The human residence. They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship, and it's going to incinerate the planet," the Doctor gave them an explanation.

 _" . . . will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated."_

"Twenty minutes to the end of the world," Lily mumbled, realizing what he was getting at.

 _". . . or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated . . ."_

So they had twenty minutes to save the world, a little bit of a cliche, but there they were. With no one else to count on but the Doctor to save them.

Yeah, just another typical day with the Doctor.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Other Pond, Chapter Two:**

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Disclaimer: I do not own _Doctor Who_ or any of the characters, places, or things mentioned in the television show. I only own my OC and any of other adjustments or additions made to the original story line.

* * *

Chapter Two: The Eleventh Hour, pt. 2

"What is this place? Where am I?" the Doctor asked, as they hurried down the road.

The girls had no idea where they were heading, having decided that it would be wiser to just follow the Doctor rather than to stall with questions, considering how much time they had until the entire planet Earth and the human race went up in flames - unless of course they were able to prevent the end of the world before the clock ran out.

The Doctor looked around, surveying his surroundings, looking for anything that could be of help to them. He sighed, seeing nothing but rows of old, stone houses.

"Leadworth," Lily answered, a little out of breath as she struggled to keep up. Amy, who appeared to be about an inch, maybe two inches shorter than the Doctor, was eight inches taller than Lily, which made Lily have to do a funny sort of half-walk, half-jog thing to keep pace with their long strides.

"Where's the rest of it?"

Amy had often wondered the very same thing. In her opinion, Leadworth was painfully small and quiet. For as long as she'd lived there, the most exciting thing that had ever happened was when the Doctor had crash-landed in their backyard twelve years ago - and up until recently she'd convinced herself that the whole thing had been a game of pretend that had gotten a little out of hand.

Growing up in Leadworth, the girls had felt like outcasts, due to the constant teasing and bullying they underwent because of their imaginary friend the Raggedy Doctor. Lily, wanting to be normal, ended that phase of her life in sixth year. Amy couldn't move on so easily. After Lily told her that she didn't want to be known forever as being one half of - as the other children had oh so kindly dubbed them - the 'Potty Ponds,' Amy had dug her heels in even more, simply refusing to move on. It was finally in secondary school that Amy decided that it wasn't worth it anymore. It wasn't worth putting strain on hers and Lily's relationship for something as childish and silly as an imaginary friend. However, even after Amy had given up on the Doctor and been accepted in by her peers, she still hadn't felt like she belonged in Leadworth. Still to that day, Leadworth didn't feel like home. And, even though Amy thought the opposite, Lily had always felt the very same way.

The two of them would never feel like they truly belonged in Leadworth.

"This is it," Amy grumbled.

"Is there an airport?" the Doctor inquired, still maintaining his brisk pace.

"No," Lily shook her head.

"A nuclear power station?"

"Ha. No," Amy scoffed.

"Even just a little one?"

"Sorry," Lily shrugged.

"Nearest city?"

"Gloucester, half-an-hour by car," Amy informed him.

"We don't have half-an-hour. Do we have a car?"

"Can't . . ." _Wheeze._ ". . . afford . . ." _Wheeze._ ". . . one," Lily said, in between gasps of air.

Gosh, was she out of shape! She could barely keep up with Amy, and boy could Amy pack away a box of chips. Not that you could tell by looking at her. Amy was a tall, thin glass of water. Lily was quite slim too, but she was also quite short. As many people had put it, she was petite - which was the polite way of saying that she was short and small and often mistaken for someone much younger than she actually was.

"Well, that's good!" the Doctor exclaimed, sarcastically, "Fantastic, that is. Twenty minutes to save the world, and I've got a post office. And it's shut!"

"How about we focus on what we do have?" Lily suggested, trying to stay positive, "Like that funny little gizmo you used earlier. What did you call it again? A sonic something or other?"

The Doctor didn't bother to comment, instead rushing over to a nearby pond - the small body of water, not one of the girls.

 _"What_ is that?" he asked, looking at the pond strangely.

'Aren't there any ponds where he's from?' Lily wondered, then, with a start, she realized that she had no idea where that was. For all she knew he could be an alien himself. And judging by the strange way he talked, the vast knowledge of aliens and alien technology, and the apparent time-travelling, she had a feeling she wasn't far off base.

"It's a duck pond," Amy responded, as though the answer to his question should've been quite obvious.

"Why aren't there any ducks?" the Doctor asked, stopping in front of the pond and turning around to face the girls.

"I don't know. There's never any ducks," Amy said, tousling her ginger hair and looking at the Doctor oddly.

"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?" the Doctor shot back, seriously.

"It just is!" Amy exclaimed out of exasperation, "Is it important, the duck pond?"

All of a sudden, the Doctor jerked back, his body convulsing, "I don't know. Why would I know?"

Lily quickly took a hold of his arm before he fell, carefully helping him sit down on the ground. "Are you alright?" she asked worriedly, "Maybe you should rest a moment."

"This is too soon. I'm not ready, I'm not done yet," the Doctor hissed in frustration, speaking to himself.

"What's happening? Why's it going dark?"

The Doctor and Lily looked up at the sky to see that something had gone and blocked out the sun, casting a shadow over the Earth, the sun's rays trying to sneak through the opaque grey screen.

"What's wrong with the sun?" Lily asked, turning to the Doctor for answers.

Before the Doctor could answer her question, the sun changed again. Right before their very eyes, the sun went from being a dark grayish color to an unnatural, blazing orange color in a matter of seconds.

"Nothing. You're looking at it through a force field. They've sealed off you're upper atmosphere, they're getting ready to boil the planet."

Both of the Pond girls heads snapped in his direction, wide-eyed and pasty-faced. Suddenly the whole 'disintegrate the human residence' thing had become entirely _too_ real.

The Doctor stood up, "Ah, and here they come; the human race."

Lily watched him warily, making sure that he wasn't going to fall over again, before she too stood up, brushing the dirt off the back of her jeans.

The girls followed his gaze to see that people had started to gather in the park, looking up at the sun and whipping out their cell phones, snapping pictures.

"The end comes, as it was always going to, down a _video phone_!" the Doctor sneered, looking at the people and their phones in disgust.

Lily pursed her lips and crossed her arms across her chest, not appreciating the slight against the species that she just so happened to belong to. Of course humans had their faults, but what race didn't? Lily wondered how many humans the Doctor had known, the way he talked about them suggested that he'd known quite a few. It saddened her to see someone, an outsider no less, who'd probably known lots of humans, talk about their species with such disdain - no, not disdain - disappointment. It made her want to prove him wrong. To show him that humans really could surprise you if given the opportunity.

"This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big windup," Amy said to herself, shaking her head in disbelief and clasping her hands under her chin, trying to push down the panic that she could feel creeping up on her.

"Amy, just relax, alright? Everything's going to be fine," Lily said soothingly, laying a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

"Why would I wind you up?" the Doctor asked them, genuinely confused.

"You told us you had a time-machine," Amy retorted.

"And you believed me, you both did."

"Then we grew up," Amy countered.

"Oh, you never want to do that," the Doctor said ruefully, knowing that it was his fault. If only he'd been on time - "No, hang on, shut up, wait! I missed it," _Wack._ The Doctor slapped his palm against his forehead, quite hard too, startling Amy, who stared wide-eyed at him in alarm.

Lily cringed, thinking about how he'd probably have a splitting headache the next day - that is, if they even lived to _see_ the next day.

"I saw it and I missed it," _Wack._ "What did I see? I saw . . . What did I see?" the Doctor wondered, thinking back to what he'd seen, remembering all the people with their cell phones raised to the sky and one man in nurses scrubs with his phone pointed instead at a man and a dog. But not just any man and dog. No, no, no, no, _that_ man and dog was Prisoner Zero in one of his disguises.

The Doctor glanced at a nearby clock hanging from a post, seeing how much time they had left.

The Doctor whipped around to face the girls. "Twenty minutes. I can do it. Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or . . . stay and help me," the Doctor said, that same glint in his dark green eyes that had been there the night they'd first met, all those years before.

"I -" Lily had just opened her mouth to speak when she was interrupted by Amy, "No."

"I'm sorry?" the Doctor said, thinking he'd heard Amy wrong. Perhaps this new body of his was hard of hearing. He couldn't be sure, not much road testing as of late.

"No!" Amy shouted defiantly, grabbing him by the tie and spinning him around, the Doctor nearly toppling Lily over as he accidentally knocked shoulders with her, causing her to stumble.

"Amy, no, no, what are you doing?!" the Doctor protested as Amy shoved him up against a nearby car, sticking his tie in the door just as the driver got out and slammed it shut. She snatched the keys out of the elderly man's hand and pressed the lock button, trapping the Doctor for the second time that day.

"Amy! Let him go!" Lily cried, stalking over to them, having recovered from her near fall after having been barreled into by the Doctor - who of course didn't mean to, as Amy had been dragging him around by his tie, like a dog on a lead.

"Are you out of your mind?" the Doctor hissed, trying to pull his tie out of the door in vain.

Lily made a grab for the keys, but Amy held them out of her reach, sending her a withering glare.

"Who are you?" Amy demanded, turning her glare on the Doctor, getting in his face and pushing him farther up against the side of vehicle.

"You know who I am," the Doctor replied tensely. All he could think about was how much time was being wasted. He could hear the seconds ticking by in his mind; a countdown until the end of the world.

"Amy, please," Lily pleaded with her cousin, thinking the exact same thing the Doctor was.

"No, really, who are you?" Amy persisted, far from satisfied with the Doctor's answer.

"Look at the sky! End of the world, twenty minutes," the Doctor hissed, reminding her of their impending doom.

"Better talk quickly, then!" Amy replied hotly.

"Amy, I am going to need my car back," Mr. Thompson, the owner of the car, who they'd briefly forgotten was still standing there, interrupted.

"Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee," Amy snapped, still glowering at the Doctor.

"I'll be sure to return the keys to you, Mr. Thompson," Lily assured him, mustering up what she hoped appeared to be a reassuring smile. Although, she was afraid that she seemed less 'reassuring' than she wanted to, and that her 'smile' had appeared more like a grimace than anything else.

"Yes, right," Mr. Thompson hesitantly agreed, knowing that there was no use arguing with Amy Pond - especially when she was in one of _those_ moods. However, he knew how responsible Lily Pond was, and that she was always true to her word. He could trust her with his car if not Amy. So Mr. Thompson, if a little reluctantly, left his car and keys with the Pond girls, and went to go have a cup of coffee across the street, shooting the Doctor a pitying glance as he left, thinking, 'Poor bloke doesn't know what he's in for.'

The Doctor stuck his hand in his pocket and threw something up into the air in one fluid motion, "Catch."

Amy stuck her hand out just in time to catch what he'd thrown. Looking down, she realized that it was an apple with a smiley face carved into it. The very same apple she'd given him twelve years ago.

Lily gasped, her hands flying to her mouth in shock.

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a time-traveler. Everything I told you two twelve years ago is true. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over," the Doctor said gravely, looking Amy right in the eyes, hoping that she'd see the truth in his.

"I don't believe you," Amy replied after a moment's pause.

The Doctor grabbed her wrist. "Just twenty minutes. Just believe me for _twenty minutes_ ," he begged, shaking the arm holding the apple, "Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one, you both do." He could practically see Amy's resolve crumbling as she glanced between him, the apple, and then over at Lily, who was watching with bated breath, praying that Amy would do the right thing and let him go.

"Amy, what've you got to lose if you let him go?" Lily said, drawing Amy's attention over to herself. Amy seemed to be waiting for more, so she continued. "But if you don't let him go . . ." she trailed off, unable to put into words what would happen if the Doctor wasn't released, she didn't even want to think about it, "Please Amy, we _need_ the Doctor."

Amy thought about it for a moment, before she slowly raised the keys in the air, clicking the unlock button, "What do we do?"

Lily let out a small breathy laugh in relief, giddy from nerves.

"Stop that nurse!" the Doctor shouted, taking off running.

The girls exchanged a look before following him, Lily shaking her head and muttering as they ran, "Always with the running."

The Doctor hopped over the low chain fence encircling the park, continuing to speed towards the nurse. Without notice, the Doctor snatched the phone out of the man's hand, lifting it up to look at the pictures he'd taken. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?" the Doctor demanded, flipping through the nurse's photos.

Lily skidded to a stop beside the Doctor, resting her hands on her knees and hunching over, taking a moment to catch her breath.

Not far behind Lily, Amy stopped beside the man that the Doctor had taken the phone from - who just so happened to be their close friend Rory.

"Amy? Lily?" Rory said, looking between the girls and the Doctor in confusion.

Lily straightened up, her breath returning to her, "Rory?"

"Hi!" Amy exclaimed, a little out of breath herself, smiling at Rory and hanging off his arm. Then, realizing that the Doctor was still standing there, she quickly let go of Rory's arm and introduced him, "Oh, uh, this is Rory, he's a . . . friend."

"Boyfriend," Rory corrected, rolling his eyes good-naturedly, trying to play it off as just playful banter between the two of them.

"Kind of . . . boyfriend," Amy added, making both Rory and Lily frown and cry out in protest, "Amy!"

"Man and dog, why?" the Doctor interrupted their little 'lovers spat,' getting straight to the point.

Rory stared at the Doctor for a moment, until his eyes widened in recognition, "Oh, my God, it's him."

The girls internally groaned. Not again . . .

"Just answer his question, please," Amy said quickly, wishing that everybody would just stop saying that.

The Doctor looked over at Lily, raising an eyebrow questioningly, silently asking her what Rory was going on about. Lily pretended not to notice, feigning sudden interest in her sneakers, scuffing the toe of her left shoe in the dirt.

"It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor," Rory babbled on, staring at the Doctor in a mix shock and disbelief.

"Yeah, he came back," Amy said plainly, not knowing what else to say. She was still in shock herself. How do you explain the sudden appearance of your childhood _imaginary_ friend?

"But he was a story. He was a _game_ -"

The Doctor lunged forward, grabbing Rory by his sweater and shaking him, "Man and dog, why? Tell me now."

"Sorry," Rory stammered, "Because he can't be there . . . Because he's -" Then, in sync, the Doctor and Rory finished together, "- in a hospital, in a coma."

Rory nodded his head, a little unnerved by that, ". . . Yeah."

The Doctor grinned, "Knew it. Multi-form, you see?" He released Rory, straightening out his sweater for him. "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind," he explained, poking Rory in the forehead when he said 'dormant mind,' making Lily roll her eyes and smile a little, in spite of all that was going on.

A dog started barking, making the four of them whirl around to see a bald man, snarling and growling at them, his Rottweiler doing the same.

"Prisoner Zero," the Doctor drawled, stepping forward, his hands in his pockets.

"What, there's a Prisoner Zero, too?" Rory questioned, looking to the girls for an answer. But the girls were a little too distracted by the hostile alien in front of them to bother answering his question.

Prisoner Zero looked up as a spaceship flew over-top a nearby church; it resembled a snowflake with a huge blue eye - Prisoner Zero's guard - in the center, and crystal-like spires sticking out in all directions. A spotlight projected by the Guard roamed over the area, scanning for the escaped prisoner.

The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, "See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And _nothing_ says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver."

The Doctor raised his screwdriver to the sky, pressing the button on the side. All of a sudden, the streetlights started exploding. Car alarms blared as the headlights flashed and the windshield wipers worked autonomously. An electric mobility scooter had gone haywire, the poor woman riding it, screaming 'Stop!' as the machine zoomed down the street, completely out of her control. On the other side of the road, the sirens of a fire-truck wailed, as the machine appeared to be driving itself, two fire-men chasing their rogue vehicle, yelling, "Hey, come back here! Oi, come back here! Come back!"

It was safe to say that all hell had broken loose in the town of Leadworth.

Prisoner Zero growled, the man's eyes darting around nervously.

"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" the Doctor said wryly, grinning at the multi-form in triumph.

Prisoner Zero started to bark again, and the Doctor dropped his arm, aiming the sonic screwdriver at a nearby telephone box, causing it to blow up in a flurry of sparks and shards of glass. But, unfortunately, so did the Doctor's screwdriver. He dropped his screwdriver as it exploded above him. It fell to the ground, now nothing but a charred and smoking stick of metal.

"No, no, no, don't do that!" the Doctor protested, dropping to his knees, carefully picking up what remained of his sonic.

Someone yelled out, "Look, it's going!"

The Doctor stood up and whipped around, seeing that the spaceship was in fact retreating.

"No, come back, he's here!" the Doctor yelled, throwing his arms up into the air, "Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is _here_."

The Doctor was too busy shouting after the spaceship to notice that Prisoner Zero had gone and dissolved into billions of glowing particles of dust, escaping down the gutter.

"Doctor! The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain," Amy told him.

"Well, of course it did," the Doctor said, as though that was the most obvious thing for the alien to do.

"Well, what do we do now?" Lily asked, looking at him expectantly.

"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think!"

Rory bent down, looking at the sewer, while the Doctor, Lily, and Amy stood over it, thinking.

"So that thing, that was in our house for twelve years?" Amy asked, understandably freaked out.

"Multi-forms can live for millennia. Twelve years is a pit stop," the Doctor replied nonchalantly.

"So how come you show up again on the very same day that lot do, the same minute?" Amy demanded, narrowing her eyes at him in suspicion.

"They're looking for him, but they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix. They're only late, 'cause I am."

"What's he on about?" Rory asked, completely lost.

"Nurse boy give me your phone," the Doctor said, holding out a hand for Rory's cell phone.

Instead of doing as the Doctor said and handing over his cell phone, Rory became hysterical, "How can he be real? He was never real!"

"Phone, now, give me!"

Lily sighed, taking Rory's phone from him and handing it to the Doctor. "You know, a please and thank you would be nice every once in awhile," she said casually, subtly implying that he was being rude once again.

"Right, yes, thank you," the Doctor said quickly, a little of distracted as he looked through Rory's pictures.

Lily shook her head, a small, smug smirk playing at her lips, very pleased that she'd been able to get a 'thank you' out of the Doctor - even if it wasn't the most sincere thank you she'd ever received. But the Doctor didn't seem like someone who was very polite, so it still felt like a bit of a victory.

"He was just a game. We were kids. You two made me dress up as him!"

"These photos they're all the coma patients?" the Doctor asked, ignoring Rory's ranting.

"Yeah," Rory confirmed.

"No, they're all the multi-form. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero," the Doctor told them, continuing to flip through the photos on Rory's phone.

"He had a dog though," Lily pointed out.

"Yeah," Amy agreed, "What, is there a dog in a coma?"

"Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog," the Doctor clarified, "Laptop! Your friend, what was his name. Not him, the good-looking one."

"Thanks," Rory said sarcastically.

"Jeff," Amy answered immediately, without even a moment's hesitation.

"Oh! Thanks," Rory exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation.

Lily patted Rory on the shoulder, consoling him, "Don't worry, I think you're good-looking too, Rory."

"Big bag, big laptop!" the Doctor shouted, pulling Lily away from Rory so that he could put his arms across hers and Amy's shoulders, "I need Jeff's laptop." Then, rather carelessly, he pushed Amy away, pointing at her and Rory, and ordering them, "Amy and Rory, you two get to the hospital, get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done."

The Doctor started heading in the direction they'd come from, back to Mrs. Angelo's house.

"Wait!" the Doctor stopped in his tracks when he heard Lily call after him, "What about me? What do I do?"

"You're with me, blondie," the Doctor said, grinning and motioning for her to follow, "Now c'mon!"

Lily turned back to Amy and Rory, pointing a warning finger at them, "You two be careful. I want to see you both back safe and in one piece. Alright?"

Amy and Rory nodded mutely, dumbfounded, as they watched their best friend run off with hers and Amy's imaginary friend to nab Jeff's laptop and potentially save the world from incineration.

Amy shook herself out of her stupor, knowing that they had their own work to do.

"Your car, come on," Amy said to Rory, running off in the direction that he usually parked his car when he was working.

"But how can he be here? How can _the Doctor_ be _here_?" Rory yelled after Amy. He sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to get a full explanation, so he followed her to his car. Sliding in the driver's seat, he put the car in drive and drove off towards the hospital, the tires screeching as they pulled away.

~DW~

The Doctor, for the second time that day, burst through Mrs. Angelo's front door, brushing right past the old woman.

Lily shot the elderly woman an apologetic smile, as she hurried after the Doctor.

The Doctor barged into Jeff's bedroom, not even having the decency to knock first.

Jeff looked up from his computer, stunned, glancing between the Doctor and Lily, who was standing right behind her 'imaginary friend' in the door frame.

"Hello! Laptop, give me!" the Doctor ordered, crossing the room and seizing the laptop from Jeff, who desperately gripped on to it, his eyes wide in horror.

"No, no, no, no, wait," Jeff protested.

"Jeff just give him the laptop please," Lily sighed tiredly, also stepping into the room.

"Hang on!" Jeff shouted, trying to pull the laptop away with one hand and half-closing the lid with the other.

"Give it here," the Doctor said, finally prying the laptop out of Jeff's grip and going to sit down on the end of the bed, Lily sitting down beside him. Jeff peered over their shoulders anxiously, as the pair looked down at the screen, their eyes widening and cheeks flushing.

"Blimey!" the Doctor exclaimed, quickly turning the screen away from Lily so she didn't have to look at it anymore, and exiting out of the open browser, "Get a girlfriend, Jeff."

Lily rubbed her eyes, trying to rid herself of the explicit image that was now stuck in her head, saying feebly, "Honestly . . . I could've done without seeing that."

"Shut it, Lily!" Jeff barked, his face now resembling a tomato, more than thoroughly embarrassed.

Just when Jeff thought that things couldn't possibly get any worse, the door opened and his grandmother walked in. "Gran," he croaked, his eyes widening even more, if possible.

"What are you doing?" Mrs. Angelo asked the Doctor and Lily, shutting the door behind her.

The Doctor was busily typing away on the laptop, Lily watching intently, "The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, a big old video conference call. All the experts in the world panicking at once, and do you know what they need?" Mrs. Angelo, Jeff, and even Lily were silent, blank expressions on their faces. " _Me_ ," the Doctor answered his own question, "Ah! And here they all are. All the big boys; NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore."

"Ooh! I like Patrick Moore," Mrs. Angelo piped up.

"I'll get you his number," the Doctor pointed a finger at the elderly woman, warning, "But watch him, he's a devil."

"You can't just hack in on a call like that," Jeff argued.

"I think he just _did_ , Jeff," Lily said, just as the Doctor flashed his psychic paper in front of the camera and six windows appeared on screen, each with a different spokesperson representing their respective organizations.

The experts looked puzzled at the sudden appearance of an unknown man and woman, appearing to be broadcasting out of a bedroom.

 _"Who are you? This is a secure call, what are you doing here?"_ the experts clamored.

"Gentleman, hello," the Doctor greeted, "Yeah, I know, you should switch us off."

 _"It's here, too, I'm getting it,"_ Patrick Moore said to the others, the Doctor ignoring them as he continued typing.

"Fermat's theorem, the proof, and I mean the real one, never been seen before."

"Oh, I remember that theory! Couldn't fit the proof in the margins. Then he was killed before he got the chance to write it down," Lily blurted out, then flushing at the strange look Jeff was giving her, she weakly defended, "What? We learned it in school."

"Exactly! Poor old Fermat, killed in a duel. My fault I slept in. Oh! And here's an oldie but a goodie, why electrons have mass. And a personal favorite of mine faster-than-light travel with two diagrams and a joke," the Doctor said, finishing his typing.

"A joke? Really? At a time like this?" Lily questioned, trying to suppress a smile.

"Why not? I certainly can't think of a better time," the Doctor grinned at her, before turning back to the experts who were looking at him expectantly, "Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius."

"Clever and modest, excellent qualities," Lily remarked wryly, smiling a little at her own joke.

The Doctor, not seeming to catch on, said, "Thank you Lily, but could we discuss my many good qualities later? I'm trying to save the planet. Anyways, back on topic. Gentleman, look at the sun. You need all the help you can get . . . Fellas, pay attention."

The Doctor took Rory's phone out of his pocket and began typing away again.

" _Sir, what are you doing?"_ the man from NASA spoke up.

"I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. And why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out. Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish. Whatever you've got. Any questions?"

" _Who is your lady friend?"_ Patrick Moore asked, sending Lily a flirtatious smile and a wink.

Lily blinked in shock, flustered, "I-I - er . . ."

"Patrick, behave!" the Doctor scolded.

" _What does this virus do?"_ the man from Jodrell Bank asked a serious question.

"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters. It gets in the WiFi and resets every counter it can find."

Lily glanced behind her at the digital clock on Jeff's bedside table.

"Clocks, calendars, anything the chip will default at zero at exactly the same time."

Lily grinned, catching on to what he was doing, leaning over and whispering in his ear, "You're going to let the Guard know exactly where Prisoner Zero is, aren't you?"

"Well, that's the plan," the Doctor said, winking at her and then turning back to the computer, "But, yeah, I could be lying. Why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain."

There was a moment of silence, Jeff ignorant to the fact that _he_ was the man the Doctor was referring to.

Lily elbowed Jeff in the ribs.

"Ow!" Jeff hissed, "What was that for?!"

Lily sighed tiredly, "He's talking about you, you git."

"What?!" Jeff croaked.

"Jeff, you're my best man," the Doctor whispered, giving Jeff a pointed look.

"You what?!"

The Doctor shut the lid of the laptop, turning to Jeff, "Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff. Right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."

Jeff looked like he was about ready to pass out, "Why me?"

"It's your bedroom," the Doctor retorted, "Now go, go, go."

Turning back to Lily the Doctor took her hand, running off and tugging her along with him.

"Wait," the Doctor stopped abruptly, Lily running straight into his back. He opened the door to Jeff's bedroom again, poking his head inside, ordering, "Oh and delete your internet history."

Lily shook her head, grabbing the Doctor's hand and dragging him outside.

They needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Lily looked up and down the street for some form of transportation that they could use. A bike? No, not fast enough. Plus, it only sat one - unless one of them sat on the handlebars. Bus? No, they didn't run consistently until after one o'clock. Car? She didn't own one and she doubted that anyone had been daft enough to conveniently leave their keys inside, "How are we going to -"

Before Lily could even finish her sentence, the Doctor had already dragged her off in the direction of a - "No. No, absolutely not. We couldn't," Lily protested.

The Doctor's grin faltered, whining, "Why not?"

Lily stuttered, unable to come up with a convincing enough reason to dissuade him, "B-because! It's - It's _stealing_!"

"Yeah, well, I certainly don't think they'll mind after we've saved their lives," the Doctor retorted, "Now, c'mon!"

Lily sighed in defeat, climbing into the big, red _fire truck_ , "Honestly, couldn't you have just picked a _normal_ vehicle? Why'd it have to be a _fire truck_?"

"Because it's close, it's big, it's red, it has sirens, and I like it!" the Doctor said, sounding more and more like a little boy.

"Fine, but if they decide to, oh, I dunno, _press charges_ for _thievery_ , I'm blaming _you_."

"Yes, yes," the Doctor said dismissively, handing Lily Rory's cell phone, "Now, I need you to send Amy a text message. Ask her how the hospital is coming."

 _Amy, how's the hospital coming? Have you gotten everyone out of the coma ward yet?_

Lily sent the text message and then turned to the Doctor, "Have you even driven a fire truck before? Wait, have you even _driven_ before?"

The Doctor rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and rubbed his hands together, "First time for everything."

Lily blanched, "I'm about to be killed by my imaginary friend."

"Oh hush, this can't be too difficult. You have the, er, the steering wheel here. It . . . steers . . ." the Doctor trailed off lamely, turning the wheel side-to-side. "And there's the gas pedal down there. Or is that the brakes? We'll find out. And, uh . . . you've got this lever here, which I suspect is for operating the ladder . . . Oh! And that button up there must be for the sirens! Love the sirens!"

Lily was becoming more and more worried by the second, "Perhaps I should drive."

"Nonsense, I know what I'm doing!" the Doctor said, waving her off.

At the disbelieving look on Lily's face he added, "Well . . . for the most part."

Lily wanted to object, but before she could, he'd already turned the keys in the ignition and the fire truck had purred to life. For a fire truck it sure did have a good engine in it.

"Alright, here we go," the Doctor said, grinning at Lily, who smiled back nervously, clutching onto her seat belt for dear life.

The Doctor, a little jerkily, managed to pull out of the parking spot on the side of the road and turn the fire truck in the direction of the hospital. Lily's confidence in his driving ability (if she'd had any to begin with) was quickly diminishing.

Just then, Rory's phone began to ring.

"It's Amy," Lily said, looking at the caller ID.

"Answer it," the Doctor ordered, making a sharp left turn that had them driving up over the curb.

"Amy?" Lily answered the phone, putting it on speaker.

 _"Lily? We're at the hospital but we can't get through,"_ Amy's voice came from the other line.

"Look in the mirror!" the Doctor answered, as they went over a nasty pothole, jostling them around.

Lily groaned.

 _"Oh,"_ came Amy's dull reply.

 _"What did they say?"_ they heard Rory's distant voice.

 _"Look in the mirror,"_ Amy repeated, looking at her reflection in a window, realizing that he meant her police uniform, _"Haha! Uniform!"_

There was a bit of rustling from the other line as Amy gave the phone to Rory to hold up to her ear as she put her hair up in a bun, _"Are you on your way? You're going to need a car."_

"Don't worry. We've commandeered a vehicle," the Doctor grinned, slamming his hand down on a button, turning on the sirens. He laughed madly, shouting, "Love the sirens!"

Lily hung up the phone. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, "Please, please, don't let us crash."

"We aren't going to crash," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. Just then, a van came out of nowhere, making the Doctor have to swerve to avoid it.

"Please, please, _please_ , don't let us crash. I'm much too young to die. I'm only nineteen! I've got my whole life ahead of me!"

"We aren't going to -"

"Don't say anything!" Lily snapped, "You'll only jinx us."

The Doctor weaved in and out of traffic, actually making pretty good time.

The phone rang again and Lily quickly answered it.

"Are you in?" the Doctor asked.

 _"Yep. But so is Prisoner Zero,"_ Amy replied.

Lily's eyes widened in fear for her cousin's and friend's lives.

"You need to get out of there," the Doctor ordered.

There was a long pause, neither Amy nor Rory saying anything.

"Amy? Amy, what's happening?" Lily demanded, a little frantic.

Lily heard what she thought was the faint sound of something screeching and rapid footsteps, possibly running, "Amy? Amy, are you there? Speak to me!"

Finally Amy answered, after having finished barricading the door, _"We're in the coma ward. But it's here, it's getting in."_

"Which window are you?" the Doctor asked.

Lily gave him an incredulous look. Window?

 _"What, sorry?"_

"Which window?" the Doctor repeated, louder.

 _"First floor on the left, fourth from the end."_

Before anything else could be said the call ended, Amy having hung up when Prisoner Zero had broken in.

"Which window?" Lily questioned, asking why he'd wanted to know which window Amy and Rory were.

The Doctor didn't answer Lily's question, instead ordering,"Text 'duck' to Amy's phone."

"Duck? Why -" Lily asked, still confused. But then it hit her. "Oh no, we're not going to -" she began to protest.

"Do it, now!"

Amy's phone vibrated in her hand. A one word text from Lily and the Doctor, saying:

 _DUCK!_

Behind them, the sound of sirens grew nearer and nearer. Amy ducked just in time, pulling Rory down with her, as the end of the fire truck ladder broke through the window behind them.

The Doctor climbed up the ladder, Lily right behind him. Once he was in through the window, he jumped down, landing beside Amy and Rory, "Right! Hello! Are we late? No. Three minutes to go. So still time." He turned back around, helping Lily down, who was a little too short to reach the floor.

"Thank you," Lily said, brushing her jeans off, "I'll tell you what, at least I learned that I _never_ want to be a fire fighter."

Amy looked her cousin over, making sure that she was okay, "Are you alright?"

Lily nodded, "A few minor hearts attacks due to the Doctor's _rubbish_ driving . . . but other than that I'm grand."

"Time for what, Time Lord?" a middle-aged woman with short brown hair, wearing a blue blazer and pencil skirt combo, sneered, two little girls each holding onto one of her hands. But it wasn't a middle-aged woman at all, because the same woman was occupying one of the many hospital beds in that very ward. No, that woman and the girls were just another one of Prisoner Zero's many disguises.

"Take the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies," the Doctor proposed.

"The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire," Prisoner Zero said, the woman's eyes flashing with a dangerous light.

"Okay. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave."

"I did not open the crack."

"Somebody did," the Doctor said lowly, growing impatient.

"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from?" The Doctor's confidence wavered, his gaze flickering to the floor.

Prisoner Zero smirked, "You don't, do you?" Then, Prisoner Zero's voice changed from the woman's to one of the little girls voices, taunting in sing-song, "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know!"

The old clock hanging above the doorframe made a loud noise as it changed from 11:49 to 11:50, the Doctor glanced up at the clock.

Prisoner Zero switched back to the woman's voice, "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

A shiver ran up Lily's spine.

There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of the clock again.

The Doctor grinned, "Aaand we're off! Look at that." He pointed behind Prisoner Zero, "Look at that!"

Prisoner Zero's heads swivelled around to look at what he was pointing at, to see the old clock, now displaying all zero's.

"Yeah, I know, just a clock whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word, all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And do you know what the word is?"

At the alien's silence Lily mocked, "Prisoner Zero doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know."

Prisoner Zero's heads snapped in her direction, growling at her and showing it's long, pointy teeth. Lily instantly regretted opening her mouth.

"The word is 'zero,'" the Doctor said, drawing the alien's attention back over to him, "Now, me, if I was in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to it's source in, what, under a minute?"

Lily took Rory's cell phone out of her pocket, tossing it to the Doctor, who caught it and held it up in front of him, "The source, by the way, is right here."

Just then, a blinding white light shone through the hospital windows, "Oh! And I think they just found it."

Lily, Amy, and Rory went the nearest window, poking their heads out to see that the Guard had arrived, hovering right above the hospital.

"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone not me," Prisoner Zero smirked.

"Yeah, but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favourite bit," the Doctor smiled, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here. Ooh, and being uploaded about . . . now. And the final score is no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare," he flung his arms up in the air, shouting, "Who da man?!"

The Doctor's exclamation was met by silence, Amy internally cringing while Rory just stared at him, a part of him thinking that it wasn't the worst phrase he'd ever heard. In fact, he might've gone used that one day if it hadn't have been a flop for the Doctor.

The Doctor looked to Lily for support, knowing that she would probably the most compassionate of the trio, but it had been so pathetic that even she looked embarrassed for him.

Lily shrugged sheepishly, shaking her head, "Sorry Doctor, not your best line."

"Alright, fine, I'm never saying that again. Fine," the Doctor sulked, sounding disappointed.

"Then I shall take a new form," Prisoner Zero said, smoothly.

"Oh, stop it. You know you can't," the Doctor said dismissively, thinking that the alien was bluffing, "Takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

"And I've had years," Prisoner Zero glowed bright orange, and then Amy dropped to the floor.

"Amy? Amy!" Lily shouted, kneeling down beside her older cousin.

"No! Amy?" the Doctor dropped to his knees, shaking her shoulders, "You've got to hold on, Amy!"

"Doctor what's it doing to her?!" Lily demanded, sounding properly frightened.

"Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please!"

"Amy, please, listen to me, you've got to stay awake," Lily begged.

"Doctor! Lily!" Rory interrupted, pointing at Prisoner Zero, who had morphed into . . . the Doctor?

The Doctor sat up, "Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?"

"What do you mean? Don't you know what you look like? That's you," Lily said, gesturing to the copy that Prisoner Zero had morphed into of him.

"Me? Is that what I look like?" the Doctor asked, confused.

"You don't know?" Rory questioned.

"Busy day. Why me? You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"

"I'm not," the voice of a much younger Amelia Pond said, stepping out from behind the fake Doctor. "Poor Amelia Pond. Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will save her. What a disappointment you've been."

The Doctor's eyes dropped to the floor out of guilt.

Lily stroked Amy's fiery red hair. She knew how it felt. She knew what it felt like to be abandoned. Abandoned by the Doctor. And she knew that Amy had been more hurt by it than she had. Lily had gotten used to being left behind. To her, it was a bit of a given. Her life seemed to have a revolving door in it; the people who entered could easily leave. Amy, on the other hand, she'd grasped onto that little bit of hope. That little tiny glimmer of hope that the Doctor would return, and she'd held onto it with all her might.

The Doctor's head shot up, realization dawning on him, "No, she's dreaming about me 'cause she can hear me." He knelt by Amy's side again, cupping her cheeks, each hand almost covering half her face, "Amy, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside, I tried to stop you, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy. Dream about what you saw."

"No, no, no!" the young Amelia and the Doctor - Prisoner Zero - began to glow, morphing into its true form; it looked like an eel with slimy silver scales, yellow eyes, and long pointed teeth. It hung down from the ceiling, showing its off fangs to the Doctor.

"Well done, Prisoner Zero. The perfect impersonation of yourself."

Prisoner Zero began to struggle, screeching loudly.

 _"Prisoner Zero is located"_ the Guard's voice boomed, _"Prisoner Zero is restrained."_

"Silence, Doctor," Prisoner Zero hissed, "Silence will fall."

The white light intensified and then Prisoner Zero was gone.

The Doctor rushed to the nearest window, sticking his head outside, seeing that the Atraxi had left and that everything had gone back to normal. But there was still one more thing he had to do . . . He pulled out Rory's phone.

"The sun, it's back to normal, right?" Rory asked, "That's . . . That's good, yeah? That means it's over."

"Amy!" Lily exclaimed as Amy began to stir.

Lily threw herself over her, hugging her tightly, "Oh my god, Amy!"

"Amy are you okay? Are you with us?" Rory questioned, going into nurse mode as he checked her over for any injuries.

"What happened?" Amy asked groggily, "Lily, you're crushing me, I can't breath."

Lily flushed, getting off of her cousin sheepishly, "Oh, sorry 'bout that."

"He did it, the Doctor did it," Rory said, helping Amy sit up.

"He saved us," Lily added, smiling gratefully at the Doctor's turned back.

"No, I didn't," the Doctor interjected from across the room, where he was messing around with Rory's cell phone.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked incredulously, standing up and going over to look over his shoulder.

"Tracking the signal back," the Doctor informed Lily, he glanced over at Rory, "Sorry, in advance."

"About what?" Rory asked, confused.

"The bill."

Lily stifled a laugh, seeing the look on Rory's face.

"Oh! -"

"Oi, I didn't say you could go!" the Doctor shouted into the phone, cutting off any objection that Rory was about to make, "Article fifty-seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established, level-five planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no one was watching? You lot, back here, now!" He hung up the phone, tossing it back to Rory, "Okay. Now I've done it."

The Doctor grabbed Lily's hand, taking off for what felt like the millionth time that day. Her leg muscles ached with every step, and the rest of her body felt like a lead weight. It was like her entire body was being carried by only her legs.

Amy quickly got up, running after them.

"Did he just bring them back?" Rory shouted after them in disbelief, "Did he just save the world from aliens, and then bring all the aliens back again?"

Receiving no answer, Rory sighed and got up off the floor, going after them. It was all he could do. After all, he couldn't just leave Amy.

Rory Williams would be chasing after Amy Pond until the day he died - and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

~DW~

The Doctor burst through a set of doors, Amy calling out after him, "Where are you going?"

"The roof," the Doctor answered. He veered off to the right, walking through a door that lead to the locker rooms. He picked up random articles of clothing, tossing the ones he didn't want behind him.

A pink dress shirt landed on Lily's head and she shook it off, "What are you doing?"

"I'm saving the world. I _need_ a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show," the Doctor said, grabbing a navy coat and twirling around with it. He threw away a striped purple dress shirt that hit Rory in the face.

Rory pulled the shirt off his face, "You just summoned aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death . . . and now you're taking your clothes off."

The Doctor shrugged off his tattered blue dress shirt, throwing it down on the ground.

Lily's cheeks flushed. She turned her head, staring unblinkingly at the lockers beside her, willing herself not to look.

"Amy, he's taking his clothes off," Rory complained.

"Turn your back if it embarrasses you," the Doctor shot back, completely unashamed of his half-nakedness.

"Are you stealing clothes now? Those clothes belong to people, you know," Rory grumbled, turning his back.

"Are you not going to turn your back?" Rory asked Amy, who still hadn't turned away from the sight of the Doctor undressing.

"Nope," Amy answered, her gaze never leaving the Doctor.

Lily shook her head, grabbing Amy's arm and forcing her to turn around, scolding half-heartedly, "Have some decency. Your boyfriends right there."

"Oh come on, Lily! You're no fun!" Amy whined.

"Thanks Lily," Rory said tensely, a little annoyed and offended by Amy's blatant disregard for his feelings.

"No problem, Rory," Lily assured him.

Lily really hoped that Amy would realize - sooner rather than later - how special Rory was to her, how much he meant to her. If she didn't, Lily was afraid that Amy would lose him for good.

~DW~

When the Doctor had found a pair of pants and a shirt, he draped several neckties around his neck (not sure about which one he wanted yet) and headed towards the roof.

Behind him, Lily and Amy followed, Rory right behind them carrying a bunch of coats.

The Atraxi floated above them, looking even more intimidating up close.

"So this was a good idea, was it? They were leaving," Amy said, questioning the Doctor's decision.

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better," the Doctor retorted, "Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now!"

The eye shot out of its spiky armour, curving downward to float in front of the Doctor, the iris shifting back and forth before it focussed on the Time Lord.

Rory pointed at the eye in disbelief, but he didn't say anything. Judging by the looks on Amy's and Lily's faces, the eye was just one of _many_ freaky things they'd seen that day.

The Atraxi scanned the Doctor, confirming Lily's theory about the Doctor not being from Earth when it announced in that booming voice, _"You are not of this world."_

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it," the Doctor said, pulling up his burgundy suspenders. He held up one of the ties that he'd hung around his neck, asking the alien's opinion, "What do you think?"

The Atraxi ignored the Doctor's question, _"Is this world important?"_

"Important? What's that mean, 'important?' Six _billion_ people live here. Is that important?"

The Doctor turned around, holding up the same red tie and looking at Lily for her opinion.

Lily scrunched up her nose, giving him a thumbs down.

The Doctor shrugged, tossing the nixed tie over his shoulder. Rory caught it one-handedly, his other arm full of coats.

"Here's a better question," the Doctor faced the Atraxi again, getting back on track, "Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?"

The alien was silent.

The Doctor tossed a navy-and-white-polka-dot tie behind him, the tie landing over Amy's shoulder.

"Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

The Guard projected a 3D-version of the planet Earth, about the same size as the eye was. Images of humans and their history on Earth flashed through the projection; the First and Second World Wars, among others, world disasters; both natural and at the hands of man, and world leaders; both political and religious, _"No."_

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

More images flew by, most depicting different cultural celebrations, _"No."_

"Okay," the Doctor said, adjusting his shirt collar, "One more. Just one. Is this world protected?"

Metal men stomping through streets, flying robots multiplying by the thousands, a red spider-like woman . . .

"Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there has been so many!"

Creatures with tentacles protruding out from where their nose and mouth should've been, aliens that had faces that resembled rock, humanoid fish creatures . . . Were all among some of the images that were playing out in front of them.

"And what you've got to ask is, 'What happened to them?'"

Suddenly, the projection changed from displaying the many visits of hostile aliens to Earth, to showing images of different men, old and young. Each of them were different, whether it was due to their faces, or their clothing, or their ages. But they all had the same eyes. Well, not physically; they weren't necessarily the same colour or shape, but they had that same look in them. A look that said that whomever it was that the eyes belonged to, the owner had witnessed some of the most beautiful things and the most terrible. The owner of those eyes had felt pure joy, but also felt crippling pain. They had lived more than any of the humans standing there in front of the Atraxi put together. And those eyes, strangely, they reminded Lily of the Doctor's. She thought that she remembered the Doctor saying something about a new face to Mrs. Angelo . . . Lily gasped, it was him. It was the Doctor! All those men, they _were_ the Doctor! The Doctor was them!

The Doctor stepped through the projection, the sphere disappearing, "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically . . . Run."

And the Atraxi did just that - well, technically it _flew._

The eye returned to its spaceship, and as quickly as possible the Guard left, leaving to warn the other Atraxi about the last of the Time Lord's and the planet that he protected called Earth.

The Doctor took out his key to the TARDIS, having heard the familiar whooshing sound of his time-machine. The key glowed orange, signalling him that the TARDIS was now ready for flight.

"Is that it? Is that them gone for good?" Amy asked, a little breathless.

"Who were they?" Lily whispered. Receiving no answer she turned around, looking for the Doctor but seeing only Amy and Rory, who were also looking around for the alien who had saved their lives - not to mention the entire planet's, "Doctor?"

Then, almost completely in sync, all three of their heads turned to see the door to the hospital's roof was wide open.

"C'mon!" Amy shouted, pulling Lily along with her, Rory right behind them.

They arrived just in time to see the TARDIS dematerializing from its spot in the middle of their back garden.

They were too late.

The Doctor had left them . . . again.

~DW~

Two Months Later, Mid-August 2008

"Do you think he's coming back for us," Amy asked for the billionth time during breakfast, gazing out the window longingly, wishing that one morning she'd look out and see that magic blue box standing there in their back garden once more.

Lily sighed at the question that was growing to be a habitual part of their mornings, trying to come up with an answer that she hadn't used before; an answer that wouldn't give Amy too much hope, and yet, not crush the hope that she still had, "I don't know, Amy. I really don't know. I mean, he was _twelve years_ late last time, and he's been gone for _two months_ already. Who knows when he'll show up next . . . if at all."

Amy turned away from the window,"What's that supposed to mean, 'if he comes back at all?"'

Lily pinched the bridge of her nose, "Amy, listen, I know you want to believe that the Doctor is coming back for us -"

"Since when were you the cynic?" Amy interjected, taking her plate (which had, had eggs, bacon, and toast on it before she'd eaten it all) and putting it in the sink to be washed, looking back at Lily with her brows knitted and a frown on her face.

A tense silence engulfed the kitchen as Lily tried to find the words to tell Amy what she'd been struggling to say for weeks.

"Amy, I-I - I'm going to university in a few weeks," Lily blurted out, her grey eyes downcast as she wrung her hands out of nervousness. She knew exactly what she'd see if she looked up. And if she looked up into Amy's eyes and saw what she thought she would see; disappointment, hurt, and - worst of all - betrayal, she'd cave for sure.

"What do you mean you're going to university? What if the Doctor comes back?" Amy demanded, clearly not understanding what Lily was trying to say. She'd thought that they were on the same page, that they both wanted to travel with the Doctor more than anything! But, sadly, that didn't seem to the case, "Oh . . . I see. So you want to move on, is that it? You want to move on from the Doctor? To go back to pretending that he never existed?!"

"No, I don't -" Lily tried to explain, only to be interrupted by Amy, who shouted, "This is just like you, Lily! I should've saw this coming, after all you were quick to give up on the Doctor the first time, weren't you?!"

"Amy, I was twelve! I was twelve years old when I stopped living my life only to wait every day, hoping and praying that the the Doctor would return. I waited for him for six years! _Six_ _years_ doing nothing with my life but waiting!"

"Yeah, but you got over him pretty quickly, didn't you? Once you'd befriended the bloody dobbers who teased us and called us names for all those years!"

"Amy, in case you've forgotten, we were the laughingstock of the _school!_ If I had've held grudges then I would've had no one to talk to except for you, Rory, and Mels!"

"And that's so bad?!" Amy challenged, quirking a brow and crossing her arms across her chest.

"Of course not! But you three weren't even in the same year as me. I had no one to talk to in class. The only time anyone talked to me was to make fun of me. At least you had each other," Lily said dejectedly, recalling how lonely those classes had been without her friends.

"So that's what this is all about, _having friends?!"_ Amy asked, anger and disbelief in her green eyes, one hand perched on her hip.

"No, this is about me wanting to go to university, just like I _always_ wanted," Lily said firmly, resolute determination apparent in her pale grey eyes; she was unwavering, there was no changing her mind. "Amy, I'm not going to sacrifice my plans, my _future_ , for the Doctor! It's ridiculous for us to just wait around for him and not live our lives."

"Fine," Amy shrugged, sounding the complete opposite of 'fine,' "Fine, I suppose we have nothing more to talk about then."

Lily nodded her head curtly, staring down at the floor, willing herself not to cry, "I-I suppose so."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"I've got work," Amy said hollowly after a while, grabbing her keys and purse off the table (rather forcefully), and storming out the door - not even bothering to say so much as a quick 'goodbye' to Lily.

Lily winced at the sound of the door slamming behind Amy, dropping her head into her hands in despair.

Lily hated fighting with Amy. It wasn't often that they fought with each other - of course they bickered, but _bickering_ was much different than _fighting_. And besides, bickering was to be expected considering how contrastive their personalities were. Nevertheless, even though they did butt heads occasionally, normally they got on quite well. In fact, they felt more like best friends or even sisters to each other than they did cousins.

However, the Doctor was a bone of contention between the girls. Amy was so willing to believe that the Doctor would come back for them, but Lily wasn't so hopeful. Perhaps Amy was right, maybe she was being cynical. Normally, Amy would've been the one looking at the glass half empty and Lily vice versa, but for some unapparent reason, they seemed to have switched roles. Lily wanted to believe that the Doctor would come back - for Amy's sake if not for her own - but she just couldn't. After all, how could she with his track record? Last time, he'd promised to be back in five minutes and he was _twelve years_ late. Who was to say if he'd show up at all this time? And she couldn't put her life on hold to wait for him. Not again.

~DW~

A Few Weeks Later, Beginning of September 2008

"You've got everything, right? Clothes, bedding, towels, toiletries, dishes, food . . . Mr. Bear," Amy teased, holding up the old, worn teddy bear that Lily had slept with every night since she was three.

Lily snatched the bear out of Amy's hand, clutching it to her chest and playfully glaring at her. Lily put the bear in an open cardboard box marked 'important stuff,' duck taped the box closed, and then loaded the box into the boot of the rental car, "Yes, I have everything, Amy."

The girls were silent for a moment, thinking about how everything was changing with Lily going away to university. They had always been so close; both metaphorically and literally. Amy wondered what it would be like, not having Lily _right there_. The only word that came to mind was 'lonely.' But she kept reminding herself that this was what Lily wanted.

After their fight a few weeks back, things had been tense between the two girls. They spoke to each other only when absolutely necessary. And when a situation arose where they had to communicate, they spoke in sentences with a maximum of five words or less. Mels had thought that they were being ridiculous, but she knew how Amy and Lily were, they were both as stubborn as an ox - or, in this case, oxen. They wouldn't make amends until they were both ready to - and no sooner than that. There was no use pushing them to make up faster, it would be a waste of time.

During this period of mutual silence between the two girls, Amy had done some thinking. And she realized that through the years, she had almost always gotten her way.

Since they were children, the girls had been like sisters to each other. Amy assumed the role of the older sister on account of her being eighteen months older than Lily was, and also because of her bold, assertive, and strong-willed personality, which was the exact opposite of Lily's shy nature. But after reflecting on the past, Amy felt that perhaps she'd been a little too bossy, maybe even a little controlling. Like that time in second year when they both wanted to be in Leadworth Primary School's production of _the Wizard of Oz_ and Amy convinced Lily not to go out for the part of Dorothy because she wanted to be Dorothy - regardless, Amy didn't get the part. Even so, that wasn't the point.

When she thought about it, there had been many more instances just like that time in second year, where she'd been selfish and used her sisterly role in Lily's life to get what she wanted. Amy had never meant to take advantage of Lily, Lily was practically her baby sister! To tell the truth, she had just never stopped to consider that maybe she was being selfish and inconsiderate of Lily's feelings.

After coming to this conclusion, Amy decided that it was only fair that she held her tongue and allowed Lily go to university. Forcing Lily or even trying to guilt her into staying and waiting for the Doctor with her was selfish and unfair.

And, in all honesty, even before Lily had said anything, a seed of doubt had begun to grow in Amy. She'd never admit it to Lily - or, at least, not while they weren't on speaking terms - but long before their disagreement, Amy had started to feel discouraged about the Doctor ever returning for them. But when Lily announced that she was done waiting for the Doctor, that she was going off to university, Amy had just felt overwhelmed and even a little scared. She was afraid that Lily was leaving her, just like everybody else had - the Doctor included. So she did what she usually did when she was scared - she got angry.

"Listen, I'm sorry about what I said a couple of weeks ago. And I'm sorry for yelling at you. It wasn't right of me," Amy apologized, breaking the silence that had settled between them.

Lily smiled sadly, pulling her cousin in for a tight hug, "It's okay, I'm sorry too."

Amy scoffed, "What for? You weren't the one who had a tantrum like an eight-year-old because you weren't getting your way."

Lily breathed out a laugh, "Well, tantrum or not, I still shouldn't have just sprung it on you like that."

"Still . . . it wasn't fair of me to try to pressure you into staying. Honestly, I think it was less about the Doctor and more about . . . me not wanting you to go," Amy confessed, looking down shamefully.

"I know what you mean, I'm a little frightened myself. Frightened that maybe things are going to change for us," Lily admitted.

Amy nodded in agreement, Lily taking the words right out of her mouth, "I'm afraid that maybe we're going to lose each other."

"But that's the thing, if we're _this_ scared that we're going to lose each other, then how could we?" Lily rationalized.

Amy smiled, "And _that_ is why you're the one who's going to university."

Lily smiled, truly happy that they'd made amends before she left, "I'm glad that, that's settled. Not speaking with you was starting to drive me mad."

Amy's laughed with her, but then her expression turned serious, "You'll call every day, right? And you'll come visit whenever you can squeeze in a break between studying and on the weekends? I know you're only going to be a two hour drive away but I'm going to miss you."

"Of course, Amy," Lily assured her, "Every chance I get I'll be popping in. Whether you want me to or not."

"I'll always want you to, you're my little cousin. We grew up together, we're practically sisters," Amy said, ruffling Lily's blonde curls.

"You're only a year-and-a-half older than me!"

"That's still older, half-pint," Amy teased, bumping into her side with her hipbone, and then bending down to pick up one of the other boxes left to be packed into the car.

"And you're now taking cheap shots about my height, lovely," Lily muttered sarcastically, also taking a box.

And just like that the Pond girls were the best of friends once more.

~DW~

A Year-And-A-Half Later, End of December 2009

Lily was in her dorm room working on a paper for her 'English Literature and History' course when she got Amy's call. She hadn't even gotten the chance to say 'hello' before Amy had jumped into excited chattering.

"Amy, could you just - Amy, just - hold on - speak slower - I can't understand - a word - you're saying," Lily was able to say, in between Amy's rapid fire speech.

" _Sorry,"_ Amy took a deep breath, trying to contain her excitement and pausing for a moment before she shouted, _"I'm engaged!"_

In shock, Lily's jaw fell open and her cell phone slipped through her fingers, clattering to the floor.

 _"Lily? Lily, are you still there?"_ Amy's voice came out of Lily's cell phone's speaker, jolting her out of her daze.

Lily hurriedly picked up the phone, gasping "What?!"

 _"I'm engaged! Rory popped the question last night!"_ Amy squealed, looking down at the beautiful diamond ring that was now firmly placed on her ring finger.

"And what did you say?" Lily asked dazedly, still in a bit of a stupor from Amy's shocking news.

 _"I said yes, of course,"_ Amy rolled her eyes at the silly question.

"How did he propose?"

" _We were at dinner last night and he just sort of blurted it out, said he'd bought the ring months ago and was just waiting for the chance to ask me."_

"Wow," Lily breathed, " _Wow,_ I didn't know Rory had it in him!"

"I know!" Amy laughed.

"So when is it? When's the wedding?" Lily asked, starting to really get excited now that it was all starting to sink in.

 _"Er - we haven't really discussed a date yet,"_ Amy answered a little tensely.

Lily's smile faded, "Oh . . ." Then, trying to continue to sound excited, she asked, "Well, what have you thought of?"

 _"Not much at all, really . . ."_ Amy trailed off, _"But, I_ did _think about one thing; who to choose as my Maid of Honor."_

"Who?" Lily asked, already having a name in mind. Mels was their oldest and dearest girlfriend, of course Amy would choose her to be her Maid of Honor. It was a no-brainer.

Lily was pleasantly surprised - well, maybe surprised isn't a strong enough word. She was pleasantly _shocked_ when Amy said, _"You."_

Lily inhaled so fast that she began choking on her own saliva.

"What?!" she exclaimed, once she had stopped coughing and caught her breath.

 _"Lily, I want you to be my Maid of Honor. Well, if you'll say yes."_

"Of course I'll be your Maid of Honor! Amy, I'm touched. I'm truly - well, I'm truly honored," Lily beamed, "But what about Mels? I thought you would have asked her."

 _"Lily, Mels is my best friend, but you're my sister. Besides, you know Mels, she's got a very firm no weddings policy,"_ Amy laughed.

"Still, she'll have to bend that rule this once. It's you and Rory who are getting married, her best friends! I'll convince her myself if I have to."

 _"Thanks Lils, I'm going to need all the help I can get,"_ Amy confessed. Honestly, she knew less about planning a wedding than she did about physics - if that were even possible, _"If anyone could pull this wedding off, it would be you."_

"Thanks 'Melia," Lily smiled, using the old nickname she had given Amy when she was little and couldn't pronounce 'Amelia' properly, "Alright, I've got to go, I've got an essay to work on."

 _"Okay, I'll talk to you later. Love you."_

"Love you, too," Lily said, hanging up the phone.

After hanging up with Amy, Lily had trouble focusing on writing her essay. She just couldn't stop thinking about the wedding and how happy she was for Amy and Rory. Even so, she couldn't help but feel a little worried. She had this unshakable feeling like maybe this wasn't the right time. Maybe Amy and Rory weren't supposed to be getting married just yet . . .

Lily shook her head, she was being ridiculous.

And she _really_ needed to get to work on this paper.

~DW~

One Year Later, Christmas Break 2010

"Urgh, what's taking so long?" Amy groaned in frustration, as she stood outside in the snow, waiting anxiously for Lily's bus to arrive.

It had been almost a month since they'd last seen each other, what with Lily being too busy with mid-terms and all to come down for a visit.

"The buses are probably just taking a little longer 'cause of all this snow we're getting," Rory assured her, putting his arm around her shoulders for warmth.

Amy hit Rory in the stomach with the back of her hand, "I told you we should've picked her up!"

"Ow! That hurt!" Rory protested, rubbing his stomach, "Besides, she said that it wouldn't be any trouble to take the bus!"

"And you listened to her?" Amy asked, raising a brow in question, "Lily, the girl who once caught pneumonia after she walked home in the rain instead of calling aunt Sharon for a lift because she 'didn't want to be a bother?'"

"Well . . . yeah," Rory said lamely, feeling a little stupid now that she put it that way.

Amy rolled her eyes, "You're such a dunce sometimes."

Just then, a bus pulled into the lot.

The bus driver opened the door and passengers began filing out of the bus one by one, carrying their bags and luggage with them and walking off towards their family and friends who had come to meet them.

Lily was one of the last people to unboard the bus. Amy would've missed her, if she hadn't caught a glimpse of Lily's familiar blonde hair poking out of the hood of her big, navy parka.

"Lily!" Amy shouted across the lot, making Lily's head shoot up at the sound of her name and her hood fall down, revealing her curly blonde locks, and her red nose and cheeks from the cold winter weather.

"Amy! - _achoo!"_ Lily sneezed loudly, the sound echoing through the now nearly empty parking lot.

Rory rushed over to help her with her bags, which she seemed to be struggling with.

"Thanks Ror - _achoo!"_ Lily sneezed again into her sleeve.

"Bless you," Amy said with a frown, taking in Lily's appearance and handing her a tissue, "You look terrible."

"Thanks Amy, that's just what I wanted to hear," Lily remarked dryly, her voice sounding scratchy and hoarse due to her stuffy nose.

"You're sick," Amy stated the obvious.

"Well spotted," Lily sniffled, opening one of Rory's car's doors and sliding into the backseat.

"You always did get overly sarcastic when you were sick," Amy laughed, leaning against the side of the car, recalling how when they were younger whenever Lily got sick how she used to force feed her turkey soup to help her get better - Lily's least favorite meal, "Want me to make you a nice, hot bowl of turkey soup when we get home?"

"No way!"

Rory and Amy chuckled, opening the front doors of the car and getting inside, where it was nice and warm.

Amy turned around in her seat, smiling at Lily, "It's good to have you home, Lils."

"It's good to be home, Amy."

~DW~

A Few Days Later, Christmas Break 2010

Unfortunately, for most of Lily's Christmas break, she was laid up in bed sick with the flu.

It wasn't so bad. It was better than being stuck at university over the holidays - and, of course, Amy made it a little more bearable by keeping her company. They spent most of their time together alternating between watching their favorite Christmas movies and wedding planning.

Lily had become Amy and Rory's unofficial wedding planner; doing everything from corresponding with the florist about the flower arrangements to booking the reception venue. And she was doing all that planning _on top_ of her university assignments and _still_ achieving above average marks.

If it had been anyone else, she probably wouldn't have agreed to help. She had enough on her plate already with university, she didn't need to add planning a wedding (something that she had no experience with!) to her list. But this was Amy and Rory, the closest thing to family that she had! There was no way she'd deny them of her help if they needed it. And they really, _really_ needed her help with this wedding. Saying that Amy and Rory were clueless when it came to weddings was being generous. They were completely _hopeless!_ Amy didn't even know that they needed to get a marriage licence, for God's sake! If Lily hadn't stepped in when she did, the future of the wedding would've been uncertain.

Not that Lily even knew the _first thing_ about planning a _wedding!_ However, one of her greatest assets was that she was a quick learner. When Amy called her up late one night, panicking about how she thought that she was making a right mess of the wedding plans, as soon as they hung up Lily got out her laptop and searched 'how to plan a wedding.' She researched all night. In fact, she almost slept through her early morning History lecture. By the end of the night, she knew the ins-and-outs of planning a wedding. Well, at the least if the writing thing didn't work out she'd have wedding planning to fall back on, right?

Anyways, almost a week after Lily's arrival, she was starting to feel much better. The girls had relocated all the wedding plans from Lily's bedroom to the sitting room, scattering papers all over the coffee table.

Amy was currently yelling at the caterer over the phone. They'd just gotten the bill in the mail and it was definitely _not_ the figure that they had discussed, "No, you listen here you git -"

"Amy, give me the phone!" Lily gasped in horror, snatching the phone out of Amy's hand, hastily apologizing to the man on the other line, "I'm so sorry, sir - really, she didn't mean it - oh, yes, I understand, sir - yes, but I'm afraid that she's right - no, that was not price we originally talked about - yes, okay - uh huh, that's . . . doable, I suppose - hold on, let me talk to her." Lily put her palm over the receiver, turning to Amy and mouthing, 'Fifteen-hundred?"

"Fifteen-hundred?! Lily, that's still a good deal over my budget!"

"I know, I know, but if we get cheaper invitations then we can afford it," Lily reasoned, then putting the phone to her ear again she said, "Okay, it's a deal. Now, don't you be going back on your price, trying to squeeze more money out of us, 'cause we won't stand for that. Either your price is solid or we take our business elsewhere. So, do we have a deal or not?"

A grin spread across Lily's face. "Great, you'll be seeing Amy in a few weeks to discuss the menu. Alright, goodbye," she hung up the phone, then speaking to Amy she jokingly chastised, "There, you see? You don't have to raise your voice or insult people to get your point across."

"I am _so_ tired of wedding planning. Apart from your wedding and obviously my own, I don't want to have to go to another bloody wedding ever again!" Amy exclaimed, ignoring Lily's little jab at the way that she had flown off the handle with the caterer.

Lily laughed dryly, "My wedding? And who would that be to?"

"Oh, I don't know, some good-looking bloke with a high IQ, perhaps?" Amy quipped, giving Lily a little shove to the shoulder.

Lily scoffed, "Like I'd find someone like that in _Leadworth_. Besides, I don't need a bloke, I've got you and Rory and Mels . . . and my career! I think I'm doing alright on my own, you know? And right now I think I just want to focus on my schooling. I don't need any distractions."

Amy quirked a brow, muttering, "You need a bloke worse than I thought . . ."

"Oh, shut it," Lily blushed, "Can we focus on you and your wedding now, please?"

Amy sighed tiredly, "Fine, if we must."

Lily rolled her eyes at that. Truthfully, she was starting to feel the same way about this wedding. At this point, she just wanted to get it over with. And they still had six months to go! Six more months of endless _planning!_ Why couldn't Amy and Rory have just decided to elope?! But, she knew that when it all came together, that it would be brilliant! As long as Amy and Rory were happy, Lily was happy.

~DW~

Six Months Later, June 25th 2010

"Alright, it's nine o'clock, off to bed you go. You've got a big day ahead of you," Lily said, ushering Amy down the hall towards her bedroom.

"Go to bed? At nine o'clock? Are you joking?!" Amy protested.

Lily gave her a stern look, "I will not have you falling asleep in the middle of your wedding tomorrow. I put too much work into planning it for that! Now, c'mon, off to bed."

Knowing that Lily was not going to relent, Amy sighed in defeat, holding her hands up in surrender, "Alright, I'm going, I'm going! Keep your hair on!"

Amy was dragging her feet, so just to get on her nerves, Lily shoved her a little to get her to hurry up, "Oi! Watch it, you!"

Lily snickered.

"Well, goodnight, I suppose," Amy said, once they had reached her room.

"Yes, goodnight," Lily said, pulling her in for a quick hug, "Now get some rest, you're going to need it."

"Yeah . . ." Amy trailed off, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked.

"Yes . . . No . . . Oh, I dunno, it's just . . . I'm a little scared, you know? Is that . . . normal, do you think?"

Lily pursed her lips in thought. "I think so. You've just got the wedding jitters, you'll be alright," she reassured Amy, who didn't look all that convinced.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. It's just the wedding jitters, just nerves, right?" Amy asked, sounding more like she was questioning herself rather than Lily.

Lily nodded her head, now a little unsure herself, "Right . . ."

Amy laughed nervously, "Okay, I'm off to bed."

"Yeah, me too," Lily agreed a little distractedly, "Nighty night."

"Night," Amy replied, equally as distracted, lost in her own thoughts about the next morning - the day that she was supposed to marry Rory Arthur Williams in front of all of their friends and family. And, in all honesty, she was starting to wonder whether or not she could go through with it.

~DW~

Lily was lying in bed wide awake, staring up at the ceiling, when she heard it . . . A sound that she had committed to memory, a sound that she had listened for everyday for _six years_ , a sound that had her almost completely sure that she was dreaming, even though a small voice in her head thought different.

'I must be dreaming,' Lily thought, sitting up in bed and turning her head to stare wide-eyed at the window, in shock and disbelief, "It _can't_ be . . ."

 _Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh . . ._

Lily's hand moved of its own accord, pushing up the sleeve of her nightgown to her elbow and pinching the pale flesh of her arm. She winced, hissing in pain, "I'm not dreaming . . ."

Without a second thought, she flew to the window. She almost couldn't believe her eyes . . . There, in the middle of their back garden, stood a big, blue police box, appearing almost out of nowhere in the middle of the night, just like it had fourteen years before.

"Amy," Lily called out, her voice quivering from both shock and unbridled excitement, slowly backing away from the window, "Amy!"

"Lily!" Amy sprinted down the hall to Lily's room, throwing open the door, "You see it too, right?"

"Yeah," Lily croaked, nodding her head rapidly, eyes the size of dinner plates, "Yeah, I do. Unless I'm hallucinating . . ."

"C'mon!" Amy grabbed her wrist, yanking her along behind her as she raced downstairs and out the back door to the garden.

At the sound of the back door closing behind the girls, the Doctor turned around, "Sorry about running off earlier. Brand new TARDIS, bit exciting."

Lily stared at him from where she was standing on the patio, slack-jawed.

The Doctor didn't seem to take any notice of the stunned expressions on both the girls faces, continuing to speak, "Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now." He grinned proudly and patted the side of the time-machine affectionately.

"It's you. Y-you actually came back," Lily shook her head in disbelief, crossing the yard to stand beside him, Amy right behind her.

"'Course I came back. I always come back. Something wrong with that?"

"And you kept the clothes," Amy said, noticing that he was still donning the tweed coat, suspenders, and bow tie that he had nicked from the hospital.

"Well, I just saved the world, the whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah, shoot me. I kept the clothes."

"Including the bow tie," Amy mocked, putting on a posh voice.

"Yeah, it's cool. Bow ties are cool," the Doctor said, adjusting his bow tie and shooting Lily a wink, making her giggle a little despite the fact that she felt like her head was going to implode.

"Are you from another planet?" Amy questioned.

"Yeah," the Doctor answered casually.

"Okay."

"So what do you think?" he asked, looking from Amy to Lily.

"Of what?" Lily asked, confused.

"Other planets. Want to check some out?"

"Huh?" Lily said dumbly, immediately wanting to smack herself for opening her mouth.

"What does that mean?" Amy demanded.

"It means . . . Well, it means, come with me, the both of you."

"Where?" Amy and Lily blurted out at the exact same time, glancing at each other in surprise.

"Wherever you like," the Doctor replied, unfazed.

"All that stuff that happened, the hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero . . ." Lily trailed off, looking the TARDIS up and down, having not been able to really take it in the first time. Although, she noted that it looked _exactly_ like any other police box would; from the roof light down to sign beside the door. She couldn't spot one dissimilarity.

"Don't worry, that's just the beginning. There's loads more," the Doctor assured them.

"Yeah, but those things, those amazing things, and all that stuff . . . that was two years ago!" Amy shouted.

"Oh," the Doctor said, finally realizing why the girls had been so shocked to see him, "Oops."

"Yeah, 'oops,'" Lily agreed, "Very, _very_ big 'oops.'"

"So that's -"

"Fourteen years!"

"Fourteen years since fish custard . . . Amy and Lily Pond, the girls who waited, you've waited long enough."

"When we were kids, you said there was a swimming pool -" Lily said, dragging her eyes away from the 'magic box' to look at the Doctor.

"And a library," Amy added.

"And that the swimming pool was in the library!"

The Doctor rubbed his neck, his head had been snapping from one girl to the other, as though he had been watching a tennis match, "Yeah. Not sure where it's got to now. It'll turn up. So, coming?"

"No," Amy answered, sounding uncertain.

The Doctor frowned, then he turned to Lily, looking hopeful that maybe she'd take him up on his offer.

Lily bit her lip and looked down at the ground, shaking her head 'no.'

"You both wanted to come fourteen years ago."

"We grew up," Lily shrugged, the words tasting sour on her tongue.

"Don't worry. I'll soon fix that," the Doctor promised, leaning against the TARDIS. He snapped his fingers and the door opened, bathing the girls in orange light.

The girls peered inside the box, their curiosity getting the better of the both of them.

Amy stepped inside first.

Lily glanced over at the Doctor first for permission, he nodded his head, smiling at her and saying, "Go on."

Lily gasped, her heart stopping when she stepped into the police box and saw what it looked like on the inside.

The tiny police box was _huge._ It was round, sort of like a dome, with metal stairs and platforms all over, some leading to doors. There was one large glass platform in the middle of the room, some kind of console rising up from it all the way to the ceiling.

"Well? Anything you'd like to say? Any passing remarks? I've heard them all," Lily registered the Doctor's voice close by, but she didn't bother to look, her eyes too busy darting all over the place, trying to take it all in, to even spare him a glance.

"It's - It's amazing!" Lily laughed in delight.

"Glad you think so," the Doctor grinned, gazing up at the console with pride, "She is pretty amazing, isn't she?"

Lily wanted to ask who 'she' was, but she wasn't sure if she could take the answer, so she kept quiet.

"I'm in my nightie," Amy blurted out.

"Oh, don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. And possibly a swimming pool. So, all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will . . . Where you do want to start?"

"You are so sure that we're coming," Amy said, walking up the platform to stand with him at the console.

"Yeah, I am."

"Why?"

"'Cause you two are the Scottish girls in the English village," the Doctor told them matter-of-factly, "And I know how that feels."

"But she's not Scottish," Amy corrected, jabbing a thumb in Lily's direction.

"No, no, no, it's a metaphor -" At the vacant look on Amy's face, the Doctor sighed, "Oh, forget it. The point _is_ neither of you have ever felt like you've belonged, right? You've both always been the outsiders, the odd ones out, the -"

"'The Potty Ponds,'" Lily mumbled, thinking out loud.

"Hmm, what was that?" the Doctor asked.

"'The Potty Ponds,' that's what the other kids used call us," Lily explained.

The Doctor snapped his fingers in Lily's direction, "'The Potty Ponds!' Exactly! And you," he pointed at Amy, "All these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent. Yeah, you two are coming."

"Actually, we can't," Lily said, after a moment of silence, sounding almost regretful.

"I'm sorry, what?" the Doctor asked, thinking he heard her wrong, continuing to busy himself with the many knobs and buttons on the console.

"I said, we can't come with you," Lily repeated, much stronger this time.

"And why not?" Amy demanded, crossing her arms.

"In case you've forgotten, you've got a prior _engagement_ tomorrow, you're _wed_ -"

"Oh . . . _that,"_ Amy groaned, rolling her eyes. Suddenly, an idea struck her and she rounded on the Doctor, "Can you get us back for tomorrow morning?"

"I can get you back for five minutes ago. Why what's tomorrow?"

"Nothing. Nothing. Just . . . You know, stuff," Amy shrugged.

"Amy!" Lily protested.

"All right, then. Back in time for stuff," the Doctor agreed.

"Can you even do that? Have us back for tomorrow? Honestly, I'm starting to think that you can drive a firetruck better than you can drive this thing," Lily said, thinking back to the two times before that he had been ridiculously late.

"She's not a thing, she's a TARDIS," the Doctor corrected. Before Lily could question him anymore a ding went off, distracting him. "Oh! A new one! Lovely," he said, holding up his new and improved sonic screwdriver. "Thanks, dear," he whispered to the TARDIS.

The Doctor typed out something on a typewriter that was apart of the console, the TARDIS starting to make that familiar whooshing sound, making the girls hearts skip a beat.

Amy turned to Lily, pleading, "C'mon, _one_ trip, please!"

Lily sighed in defeat, "Fine, one trip, alright? You've got that right, space-boy? _Only one_ trip!"

The Doctor wrinkled his nose, "Space-boy? I've never been called space-boy before. Space- _man_ , Martian, and a few other names not worth mentioning, but never space- _boy!"_

"Oi!" Lily interrupted his ranting, "Did you hear me? _One_ trip?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath, "And now I see the resemblance."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing," the Doctor waved off her question, "One trip. Yes, I got it."

"Why me? Why us?" Amy questioned him.

"Why not?" the Doctor shot back with a grin.

"No, seriously. You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?"

Lily frowned, not liking the way that Amy had phrased that.

"I don't know. Fun. Do I have to have a reason?"

"People always have a reason."

It was almost like Amy _wanted_ the Doctor to have some kind of ulterior motive . . .

"Do I look like people?" the Doctor asked, repeating the same question that he had asked the girls fourteen years before, right before he'd left the first time.

"Yes," Amy and Lily answered together.

"Been knocking around on my own for awhile. My choice. But I've started talking to myself all the time. It's giving me an earache."

"Then bringing Amy along is a bad decision, she'll literally talk the ear off you," Lily quipped.

Amy elbowed Lily in the ribs, "Ow!"

Amy ignored her, saying to the Doctor, "You're lonely. That's it? Just that?"

"Just that. Promise," he assured them.

"Okay."

"So, you're both okay, then? 'Cause this place, sometimes it can make people feel a bit . . . You know . . ."

"Overwhelmed? Crazy? Queasy?" Lily suggested.

"Yeah . . ." the Doctor watched her warily. He _really_ didn't want to have to clean up her vomit.

"We're fine. Fine. It's just . . ." Amy trailed off, staring up at the ceiling, "There's a whole world in here, just like you said. It's all true. I thought . . . Well, we started to think that maybe you were just like a madman with a box."

"Amy and Lily Pond," the Doctor turned serious, "There's something you'd better understand about me, 'cause it's important, and one day your lives may depend on it."

The girls stared at him, waiting for this so called 'important' information that may one day save their lives.

"I am definitely a madman with a box."

Lily tried to hold back a laugh, but she couldn't help it. She cracked up at the same time that Amy did.

A broad grin spread across the Doctor's face, laughing with them, "Ha ha! Yeah."

The Doctor rushed back over to the console and taking a hold of a big lever. "Goodbye, Leadworth. Hello, everything!" he shouted, pulling down on the lever, sending them into the Time Vortex.

The girls grabbed onto the console to keep from falling, laughing in delight as the TARDIS took off, taking them to God knows where. And even though Lily kept reminding herself 'just one trip' over and over, a small part of her, deep, _deep_ down inside, knew that, that wasn't true. How could you limit yourself to _just one trip_ when you had a _time-machine_ at your disposal?! Even so, they couldn't just leave Rory for too long, regardless of the fact that they could be back five minutes before they'd even left or not. It was the principle of the thing.

Lily wouldn't let traveling with the Doctor go to her head.

* * *

A/N: Hey, there! I know, I know, it's been awhile. I am really sorry that I've kept you guys waiting for so long for an update. A close family member of mine hasn't been well lately, so I've been kind of busy. Don't worry, I fully intend on continuing this story, and hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up sooner. Also, I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to read, follow, favorite, or even review this story. Honestly, your support means so much to me! Anyways, I really hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter! Stay fantastic!

Sincerely,

 **WritersBlockNotWelcome**


	3. AN: It's good news, I swear!

Hey guys, sorry for the _immensely_ long wait! I bet some of you probably lost hope in me ever returning to this story at all. But what can I say, I am just full of surprises. It's a very, very long story as to why I've been MIA for so long, but I promise you that you amazing readers can expect an update in the not so distant future. I am in the midst of studying for my upcoming final exams, but once those are over with I can get back to working on the third chapter of _The Pond Girls._ So, prepare yourselves for an update because it is coming sooner than you think!

Love you all so much,

 **WritersBlockNotWelcome**


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